According to a report by the Global E-waste Monitor, roughly 53.6 million metric tonnes (Mt) of electronic waste was discarded worldwide in 2019. Based on current trends fueled by a number of factors such as limited repair options and the desire to have the latest tech device, global e-waste is predicted to reach a whopping 74 Mt by 2030.
British design company Gomi is on a mission to combat the ever-increasing mountain of e-waste. How you may ask? By upcycling e-bike batteries to power Bluetooth speakers.
More specifically, damaged Lime e-bike battery cells are repaired for reuse. The speaker itself is encased in a 100% recycled plastic waste box. To further push a sustainable and circular model, Gomi offers a “repairs-for-life” return service so that the speakers don’t have to be tossed when broken.
“We designed the Gomi Speakers to be a breath of fresh air into the world of environmentally-friendly consumer tech,” explains Tom Meades, co-founder of Gomi. “We’re the first company to create fully-circular tech products made from post-consumer waste materials that would usually end up in landfill, giving them a second life. We’re on a mission to prove that tech can be environmentally-friendly, fully-circular, whilst also being high-performance and aesthetic.”
“We’re really excited to see how Gomi has managed to give a new, second life to our old batteries,” says Andrew Savage, vice president of sustainability at Lime. “Their technical expertise and innovative product line offers an exciting opportunity to re-use parts that would otherwise have been recycled, and turn them into stylish everyday essentials that will last a lifetime.”
For Lime, this partnership with Gomi represents a commitment to extending the life of its e-scooters and e-bike batteries as part of their Ride Green initiative and ambitious Net Zero goal by 2030. Although batteries can be recycled, Gomi states that second life uses are more sustainable.
All images in this article are courtesy of Gomi.
