You can do it – Like GOMI or Brothers Make!
In this post:
gomi Design,
Brothers Make,
Precious Plastic,
Precious Plastic Vienna
Plasticpreneur,
…Remember the list at the bottom – more on Plastic Upcycling
above image: GOMI at work
Gomi Design uses ‘non-recyclable’ Waste Plastic BAGS!
A waste upcycling and design Studio called gomi has taken steps toward a pretty cool method of sourcing its materials, producing products that are made of mostly recycled components and are ready to continue to recycle them, when a customer is finished using the product…..
The Brighton, UK-based sustainable design business, Gomi, has been upcycling plastic waste and creating consumer tech that can be fully circular, high performance, and has a desirable aesthetic. In 2018, the company released the world’s first portable speaker made from non-recyclable plastic……….
“We, gomi design, entered the product design world when we released the world’s first Portable Speaker made from ‘non-recyclable’ trash.”
Here is how they started….
We are based in Brighton, UK, where we create all of our products by hand in house.
We are striding towards a world where products can be infinitely repaired or recycled, and so put a stop to unnecessary landfill forever.
Now, we are leading the way as a consumer technology brand that puts sustainability at the forefront of our designs.
We are passionate about turning waste into long-living valuable circular products people will love for generations.
March 2019 – …“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’s Tom Meades.
Giving a continued life to Non-recycleable Plastic 17 March, 2021 -…Tom Meades, Gomi’s cofounder quickly realized that he could process plastic waste and turn it into circular products capable of indefinite reuse. “I explored the idea of creating an essential tech product that we all love—a Speaker—but designing it to be infinitely repairable and recyclable.” After exhibiting his earliest prototypes around Europe, he began a relationship with his current business partners, Rishi Gupta (Finance and Operations), Kyle Brackenfield (Engineering and Electronics), and Pawan Saunya (Growth and Marketing), to turn the concept into a consumable product. …
…”We have ovens where we melt down the plastic at low temperatures,” explained Meades, who notes that keeping a low-melting temperature ensures Gomi can avoid producing noxious fumes and that the plastic can be recycled without degradation in the polymers—giving the materials a much longer lifespan. The team can then press the plastic between aluminum molds using a custom-designed electric compression-press, and first hand-working the material to create the marble patterns that fans love and associate with the brand.
GOMI’s Products include:
Gomi portable chargers repurpose plastic waste and batteries April 2020 – Each year, the world produces 150 billion kilos of flexible plastics with the potential to pollute the environment (about 1.2 billion comes from the UK where Gomi is based). The company goes even further to raise awareness for a different type of pollution: batteries. There are over three billion batteries produced every year, and the global demand is only growing.
Gomi introduces wireless chargers made from plastic waste March 2021 – Featuring their signature marbled aesthetic that is created by the natural color variation of recycled plastic bags, their latest eco-friendly gadget proves to be even better than its unsustainable counterparts with 15W fast-charging capabilities that make it twice as fast as regular lightning cables.
The charger is conveniently compatible with devices that have magnetic charging abilities and wireless charging capabilities, and costs just under $50.
Gomi offers automatic lifetime warranties for their wireless chargers, as they do with all their products to prevent any of their items from unnecessarily filling landfills. They also offer buy-back credits for devices that are too worn to be repaired so that the company can recycle and reuse whatever material they can save for up-and-coming products.
Soap dish Soap Studio was keen to explore the potential of our upcycled waste material and together we came up with an original design, and suitable colour palettes to create a range of individual soap dishes for their customers. We designed and manufactured bespoke aluminium moulds for the products, and pressed all of the dishes at our design studio locally in central Brighton. Soap Studio fits with our brand values, making all of their products locally and ethically.
Bespoke Awards made from plastic waste. Created for the winners of the Berlin Commercial Film Festival 2019 – We worked with Berlin Commercial to design a trophy that was traditional in its form, yet modern in the marbled material that created it. The Festival’s slogan, ‘Leave your mark’, inspired the stamp-shape, as a piece of memorabilia for the winner in order to recognise their achievement in the commercial film industry. We worked closely with the festival director to 3D-print prototypes of different forms around the concept, before committing to the final design.
GOMI’s latest Product and another Kickstarter success!
The project has already raised $49,067 of the $5,510 goal with the help of 233 backers.
An environmentally-friendly 25W Mono Portable Speaker made from 100 waste plastic bags, with 100% of the power coming from repurposed batteries saved from damaged e-bikes.
Gomi Designs Portable Speaker From Non-Recyclable Trash …Gomi Designs collaborated with food retailers in their area, Sussex, UK to source non-recyclable plastic waste including bubble wraps, plastic bags, and pallet wraps. It took a year of consultation sessions with professionals in the audio and electronics industry before they could decide on the “tech” to be used in the manufacturing of Bluetooth speakers that not only look good but are also flawless in operation. … .
..A minimum of one hundred bags worth of plastic waste goes in each speaker which means that plastic waste (that is supposed to go into the landfills as waste or otherwise would pollute the ocean) gets turned into something useful and lessens the threat it would have otherwise posed to the environment. …
…For more dexterity and uniqueness in the marbled texture of its products, Gomi has opened its doors to locals to collect raw materials needed to make their products.
Gomi: A Case Study “The opportunity for us is to make products completely out of waste such as our portable chargers made from waste batteries and post-consumer waste thin-film plastics.” says Pawan Saunya (in charge of Growth and Marketing at GOMI Designs)
“Our current challenge is industrialising our methods. We will be able to rescue so much more plastic waste if we were able to process more material faster into products. For example, through a rather straightforward introduction of 2 custom machines we will be to increase output by 30 times. “
Brothers Make uses Waste Plastic
We are proud members of the *Precious Plastic community and we are an official workspace on their community map.
We, Brothers Make, hope that our work inspires others to try it for themselves. Making things with your hands is a skill that everyone can try but many don’t set the time aside to do so. Give it a go! You won’t regret it.
This is a part-time gig for both of us. Matt is a design & technology secondary school teacher and Jonny works as a senior account manager at a marketing firm.
In 2018 we started making things together, as we did as kids; an excuse to hang out together more often. This quickly developed into photographing our work for Instagram and eventually filming projects for YouTube.
We are based on the south coast of the UK and we design and build projects for our YouTube channel, including ideas for making order in your workshop: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC0A0TIq-WDyKZcGcOt5WpPA
How do you collect waste plastic – Here is one way………….
What are the simplest tools to have to make waste plastic products? Here are some very simple tools………………..
Brothers Make says:
Our Do It Yourself (DIY) method for plastic upcycling into products:
For the last 4 years we have been using this method for all of our plastic recycling projects. >>This is absolutely possible to duplicate with minimal tools and set-up (check out the video above for our ultimate guide in how to get started!) We have been working solely with HDPE (♻️2) because this plastic melts at a low temperature. Providing you keep it below 180°C, it will not burn or release any toxic gases.
>>Melting the plastic requires a heat source. Our favourite is a flat-plate sandwich toaster but we have also used a toaster oven and even a T-shirt press, which also work.
>>Once the plastic is melted, we transfer it to homemade wooden moulds and then apply pressure using our DIY press. Once cool, the plastic can then be shaped, worked, and planed to turn it into a new product. We make sure to collect up all of the shavings from the cutting/planing to minimise waste as much as possible.
The downside? The way we are working is not yet cost effective, but we are planning to upscale our production…………..
Our NEW batch production machines:
By creating a demand for recycled plastic products, it ensures that less plastic ends up in landfill or our oceans. To increase the supply, we have purchased a number of machines from our friends at Plastic Preneur*. These will enable us to reduce the time it takes to make products and help to bring the finished product’s costs down.
For Example:
We have purchased a shredder to process a wider range of types of plastic into usable, uniform flakes.
We have also purchased injection and extrusion moulding machines that heat and inject recycled plastic into custom-designed product moulds.
*Precious Plastic, The Waste Plastic Helpers
The people who are serious about waste plastic upcycling.
https://preciousplastic.com/
These are the people who have “open source” directions for you to start a Waste Plastic Production business operation…. with confidence.
Want to talk to someone? Day to day discussions in the Precious Plastic Universe happen on Discord. Introduce yourself, say hi in your country channel and start to discover the different channels where people go deep into specific topics (building, collection, design etc..)
There are many ways to join or talk to the Precious Plastic Universe. You can meet people by joining the conversation on Discord, browse the Map and find people near you or dig the Academy. But first, discover the Starterkits. There are 8 kits.
The Starter kits, do not come to you in a box, that you have to wait for in the mail.
You download the contents in a zip file, right away, and there is also a page on their website dedicated to the kit you want….
also giving you lots of information you might need.
For Example:
Set up a Collection Point
On this How-to page we’re going to guide you through all the steps to set up a Collection Point. Learn about plastic, how to create the space, and how to grow a collection network and connect to the Precious Plastic Universe.
Download files: 👉 https://cutt.ly/starterkit-collection 👈
From the Map you can find interesting people doing what you are considering….
Precious Plastic Vienna
You will notice that one of the enterprises at PPVienna is
*Plasticpreneur: Machine Builders
– User-friendly, reliable, easy to ship and CE-certified.
Just one of many machine builders around the world.
Posts about Plastic Waste:
Waste Plastic Upcycle Businesses – Opportunities, Opportunities!
Hurray For Planet Earth! And Democracy!
Waste Plastic BUSINESSES – UpCycle
COVID 19 Waste – Pick It Up Off The Street!
Recycling Grants/Funding For Waste Plastic
The Collapsable Coffee Cup Wars
Waste Plastic – Business Success Stories
and Following the Ocean Cleanup project……………
Plastic in the Oceans >> Ocean Cleanup!
System 001/B – Ocean Cleanup – Update
Ocean Cleanup >> Is Beginning To Clean-Up!
INTERCEPTOR™ Jobs! Business!, +1000+ Jobs!
There Is Only One Good Thing About That Idiot In The White House, Exiting The Paris Agreement….
More waste ideas:
Harvesting Waste Ideas. Waste Rushes? NOW!
The University Of Exeter – Business Consulting, Materials Testing
Africa For Small Businesses – Opportunities, Opportunities !
Eco-Printing & Packaging EQUIPMENT
Eco-Plastic
Hard-To-Recycle Waste – What Do You Have? What Are You Looking For?
Wasterush Tools! Right To The Point!