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The Gomi Speaker | Recycled Plastic waste into a portable speaker.

Written by: Hendrik

Category: Lifestyle, News

Updated on:

THIS POST MAY CONTAIN AFFILIATE LINKS; PLEASE READ MY DISCLOSURE FOR MORE INFO.

Do you need a new portable speaker?

How about one that is made from plastic waste? Bags and soft plastics that the British Council doesn’t accept.

Hundred plastic bags are used to make this speaker. The speaker is currently on Kickstarter, and if you want to back these guys up, then jump on over and support them.

Who is Gomi design?

Tom Meades (Design & Operations), Pawan Saunya (People & Marketing), Rishi Gupta (Numbers & Accounts), and the latest candidate in the team is Kyle Brackenfield (Moulds and Engineering). They together are the brains behind this awe-inspiring innovative new concept.

Gomi was co-founded by Tom Meades, Sustainable Designer, and Maker based in Brighton. Tom told us, “We were inspired by the cradle-to-cradle design process, thinking about our products full-lifecycle right from the beginning of our design process. With our Bluetooth speakers, we want to intercept a waste stream that would otherwise be landfilled or incinerated.

Call them social entrepreneurs, taking the rubbish that is otherwise thrown out and ends up on landfills or our oceans to make beautiful speakers out of it. 100 plastic bags go into one speaker and each is unique. However, they do come in three different styles.

What the process looks like?

From This:

soft packaging
melted trash
Gomi-Mold
Gomi Gif

To this:

Gomi Speaker on shelf
Gomi Speaker 7

Pretty cool looking speaker if you ask me.

Why?

In the UK alone, we throw away 300 million kilos of flexible plastics like LDPE. Low-density polyethylene is widely used for manufacturing various containers, dispensing bottles, wash bottles, tubing, plastic bags for computer components, and various molded laboratory equipment. Its most common use is in plastic bags. Other products made from it include Trays and general-purpose containers. ~ Wikipedia 

In the UK alone, we throw away 300 million kilos of flexible plastics like LDPE. Low-density polyethylene is widely used for manufacturing various containers, dispensing bottles, wash bottles, tubing, plastic bags for computer components, and various molded laboratory equipment. Its most common use is in plastic bags. Other products made from it include Trays and general-purpose containers. ~ Wikipedia

Related: The Dangers of Plastic Food Containers and 11 ways to avoid them.

Specs:

  • handmade Gomi speaker
  • play 18h on a single charge
  • minimalistic – Only 1 button
  • size 138mm x 80mm
  • connection: Bluetooth 4.0
  • exceptional Sound Quality

Sound: 1x Dome Tweeter: 8 Ohm, Frequency Response 1000 – 20000HZ, Mean sound pressure level 90 dB(1W/1 m)

1x Base Midrange: 8 Ohm, Rated power 30 W, Mac power 50W, Frequency response fu- 15000 Hz, Mean sound pressure level 86 dB (1 W/1 m)

Warranty:

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.

Additional:

Gomi is also making a hand-made portable charger with a massive 20000mAh Lithium-ion battery. Suitable to charge your smartphone up to 5 times and an Ipad around 2.5 times.

It has high-speed charging and will fully charge your phone within 45 minutes.

Retails at 39 pounds and estimated shipping date is November 2019.

connections for gomi

Final Message

While you have to wait until November this year to receive your new/recycled speaker, I think it is a fantastic new way to make some really fresh and unique looking products. Great effort from these three guys, and it is so delightful to see how someone with a great vision start something new from scratch.

Follow Gomi on Instagram here or go and email them at hi@gomi.design

Update:

Gomi design
The Gomi Speaker | Recycled Plastic waste into a portable speaker. 9

This is what their current sales page looks like. I am thrilled to say that this Kickstarter project was a success, and the guys are working hard in the background to make more speakers. If you want one simply sign up to their waiting list. Awesome job, boys.

Photo of author

Hendrik Kaiser

I've studied biology and lived for 3 years on an off-grid permaculture farm. I love kitesurfing and keeping my body healthy and fit. Hence, I care so much about keeping our environment clean and being as zero waste as possible. Being a zerowasteman is a superpower everyone has inside of themselves, and I want to teach you how you can unleash it.

6 thoughts on “The Gomi Speaker | Recycled Plastic waste into a portable speaker.”

  1. Good Morning Hendrik,

    What a great idea to give 100 plastic bags a new life making them into a Bluetooth Speaker and in the meantime cleaning up the environment.
    I agree with you these speakers look nice and unusual. Our world is flooded with all kinds of plastic, one can call it the plastic plaque of modern times. Any idea how to reuse it is welcome and I think these people are doing a really good job.
    The company Gomi accepts a free return and will recycle again, like that these 100 plastic bags have been used multiple times.
    Thank you for this article, it is nice to read about something so positive.

    Regards, Taetske

    Reply
  2. Hi Hendrick,

    That is actually a pretty genius idea, recycled goods that are of every day practical use. The design is pretty cool, do the Kickstarter’s have a variety of option in terms of design and colour?

    Out of interest – do you have a mailing list where I can stay informed about cool products like this?

    Reply
    • Yes Derek, seeing plastic more as a resource rather than waste can shine a whole new light on this product. If you want to stay up to date with more products and other info plastic related, please subscribe to my newsletter where I post weekly about new projects and solutions. Thanks

      Reply
  3. Hi Hendrik,
    Nice article of yours. Really, plastic makes our lives easier. We can use it in many ways. From containers to bags, garments, and ropes. It is part of our lives. it can be considered as a necessity. But now we come to realize its effects, especially in our environment and health. Plastic pollutes our planet and poison our body. Certain measures are taken to replace plastic like using palm leaves for grocery bags, banana leaves for food wraps, abaca fiber for ropes and cotton yarn for fabrics instead of nylon and polyester. Turning plastic into a reusable product is a great idea, like the “Gomi” speaker. We should limit using plastic and find an environment-friendly alternative before our mother earth chokes to death.

    Reply

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