Gomi, a sustainable design studio based in Brighton, UK, has created an environmentally friendly 12,000mAh portable charger made from 100% non-recyclable plastic waste, and sourcing 100% of its power from repurposed batteries.
You might recall a story that
HiddenWires published this time last year about the Gomi Speakers, which was the group’s first sustainable innovation made from ‘non-recyclable’ plastic waste. The project was kickstarted after the design studio won £10,000 from the Environment Now Programme in January 2018.
The company’s aim is now to scale-up and introduce its consumer electronic products, made from waste materials that were otherwise destined for landfill, to the mass global market at an affordable price.
Available via the crowdfunding site, Kickstarter, Gomi will
launch its limited-edition, high-powered portable chargers on 31 March 2020.
The concept of the company is to help tackle the plastic waste problem around the world. Plastic waste makes up 85% of the pollution on beaches worldwide. The UK alone throws away 1.2bn kilos of flexible plastics every year, while worldwide, 150bn kilos of flexible plastics are produced every year.
Similarly, battery waste is a growing issue worldwide, with currently over three billion batteries being produced every year with no real way to recycle or reuse them in commercial products. The demand for li-ion batteries is forecasted to grow 10% a year from 2020-25, meaning the waste pile is likely to grow alongside it.
Gomi has plans to work with electric car manufacturers to ensure their batteries have a second life too and are hoping to release portable chargers made from electric car batteries later in the year. If electric and hybrid vehicles are removed from the forecast, the number falls to just four percent a year.
“Over the past nine months, we have diverted around 500kg of ‘non-recyclable’ plastic packaging waste from going to landfill,” said Tom Meades, sustainable designer and manager at Gomi. “We hope that by introducing an affordable, fully-circular product built from recycled plastic material, we can increase this amount by over 10x. Helping to clean the planet of pollutant waste streams, but also create fun, everyday cherished products that people love to use.”
To ensure its products are also recycled, Gomi are offering a free return service at the end of its life. The organisation will simply remelt the plastic down to make new products from.