Battery cells that can no longer power electric bikes can still be good for smaller products such as portable speakers.
British sustainable design startup Gomi is capitalizing on this transition and has partnered with urban mobility company Lime to transform its retired bike batteries into stylish 25-watt Bluetooth speakers that you can take anywhere.
The limited-edition product features 20 hours of battery life and can be fast-charged to full capacity in just two hours. It’s available on Kickstarter for 30 days only — throughout March 2021 — and costs 99 British pounds (about $137 U.S.), with shipping available to anywhere in the world.
The zero-waste efforts don’t stop with the battery, as the speaker’s marbled casing is created using 100-percent recycled plastic waste saved from landfills. The speaker’s four available colors include Lime Green (of course!), Black Mono, Blue Ocean, and Birthday Cake (mostly white with some gray and blue streaks).
Gomi describes the Lime battery packs that it uses as “damaged,” though when removing the cells, it carries out rigorous repairs and testing procedures before fitting them to the speakers.
“We designed the Gomi Speakers to be a breath of fresh air into the world of environmentally friendly consumer tech,” said Gomi co-founder Tom Meades. “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, while also being high performance and aesthetic.”
Commenting on the initiative, Andrew Savage, vice president of sustainability at Lime, said: “We’re really excited to see how Gomi has managed to give a new, second life to our old batteries. Their technical expertise and innovative product line offers an exciting opportunity to reuse parts that would otherwise have been recycled, and turn them into stylish everyday essentials that will last a lifetime.”
The speakers are the latest addition to Gomi’s growing range of sustainable products that also includes portable chargers and wireless mag chargers.
You can learn more about Gomi’s new Bluetooth speaker on its Kickstarter page.
For more ideas on available Bluetooth speakers that you can take anywhere, check out Digital Trends’ carefully curated suggestions.
