Lime e-bike batteries are being turned into portable speakers

Source: Shannon Connellan · MARSHABLE · | March 2, 2021

Source: IMAGE: GOMI / LIME

A British sustainable design business is set to upcycle battery packs from Lime e-bikes and e-scooters and turn them into slick portable Bluetooth speakers.

Based in the creative hub of Brighton, England, Gomi has been upcycling plastic waste for several years. In 2018, the company released the world's first portable speaker made from non-recyclable trash and powered by 100 percent reclaimed battery cells (each unit holds the equivalent of 100 plastic bags worth of non-recyclable plastic, the team says), and since then have added portable chargers and wireless mag chargers to their arsenal.

Now, Gomi is working with Lime to produce portable speakers using the same plastic repurposing method, but also powered with rechargeable second-life batteries from the micromobility company's e-bikes. The 25W speakers, which can be paired with each other for a stereo effect, will be available in different colour schemes — Birthday Cake, Black Mono, Blue Ocean, and of course, Lime Green — and will be sold through Kickstarter. Each speaker costs £99 ($137) for super early birds then increases to £149 ($206) for general sale.

Gomi co-founder Tom Meades told Mashable that he reached out to Lime at the end of last summer following the success of the company's chargers. Having made impact in the UK market since 2018, Lime represented a likeminded sustainably-focused business opportunity for Gomi — its electric scooters and e-bikes are modular, meaning their parts can be swapped out or repaired, and the materials that make up the vehicles can be recycled after they stop functioning. However, Gomi's project intends to give the fleet's core batteries a second life as they are.