Speakers for Recycled Plastic

Brighton-based design studio Gomi has created a portable speaker using flexible plastic waste that is normally not recyclable by local councils in Britain, and Gomi has started a Kickstarter campaign to launch the product.

Plastic waste makes up 85 percent of the pollution on beaches around the world, and every year the UK alone throws away 300 million kilos of flexible plastics. Flexible plastic (LDPE) consists of plastic bags, bubble wrap and pallet wrap, which are all not accepted by UK councils for recycling.

“We were inspired by the cradle-to-cradle design process, thinking about our products full-lifecycle right from the beginning of our design process,” said Gomi cofounder Tom Meades.

“Flexible plastics / LDPE is widely regarded as non-recyclable by UK councils, and so we thought this would be the perfect material to harness and show that through innovative design this can be valuable, and does not have to end up as waste polluting our environment. Instead, we can craft this material into desirable objects,” Meades said.

Each speaker takes an equivalent of 100 plastic bag worth of flexible plastics to make.

GOMI

Gomi aims to have free repairs for their products and free returning for recycling. The products are designed to be modular, so they can be separated easily, and the plastic components can easily be melted into new components for future products – without losing any material value.

“Our components are made from 100% non-recyclable plastic. We have worked with audio professionals and electronics engineers over the past twelve months to ensure the product is not only aesthetically desirable but also sounds great,” said Meades.

Gomi is on crowdfunding platform Kickstarter right now to expand the scale of the project. You can back them HERE.