Gomi means Garbage

Meet Gomi- The company making the world’s most sustainable consumer tech accessories straight from trash

Jun 27, 2025

At first glance, it’s just a speaker—smooth, swirled with molten color, like something you’d find in a boutique design store. And you'd be right: it sold at Paris Fashion Week, it’s been stocked at MoMA, and it's unlike anything else in tech. But it's also made from plastic bags. And inside? Batteries rescued from discarded Lime e-bikes.

Meet Gomi (word meaning garbage or waste in Japanese), the Brighton-based company that’s turning waste into wonder. We’re thrilled to announce that Numo will be partnering with Gomi to become their official US distribution partner. Huzzah!

Together, we’re bringing their uniquely beautiful, repairable tech products to the world of promotional products, in a way that doesn’t sacrifice design, story, or sustainability.

From Plastic Waste to MoMA

Gomi was born on the beach. Literally. Co-founder Tom Meades, a student in Brighton, UK, at the time, along with his Co-Founder Rishi Gupta, began collecting plastic waste—the kind deemed "non-recyclable" and destined for incineration or landfill—and started melting it down as a part of a school project. What emerged wasn’t just raw material; it was art. Vibrant, one-of-a-kind patterns. A new texture. A new way of thinking about trash.

But it didn’t stop there. Gomi wanted to put this beautified waste into something functional. Enter: tech. In an industry notorious for its throwaway culture, Gomi flipped the script.

“Yeah, we kind of wanted to create tech, because tech is so wasteful. So we wanted to use these waste streams to create products that are repairable, long lasting, and not going to contribute to waste in the end,” said Tom.

They designed power banks, speakers, and wireless chargers that are not only made from waste but are also made to last. Products are screwed together (never glued), which means they can be opened, repaired, and upgraded—forever. No planned obsolescence. No landfill finale.

When they got ready to present their product to the world, they were met with an unsuccessful Kickstarter. Although their first Kickstarter campaign may have flopped, what immediately followed was a rocket ship: press in Forbes, and Fast Company, followed by brand collaborations with Heineken, Paul Smith, Vans, and even a spot in MoMA.

Art, Tech, and Trash

Gomi’s design language is unlike anything else in electronics. Instead of the usual grayscale rectangles, Gomi embraces the chaotic beauty of waste plastic: marbled swirls, unexpected textures, and totally unique finishes. Every piece is one-of-a-kind.

“Most factories around the world, everybody's trying to make …just want one color. Actually, using waste materials, you get, like, a real mix of patterns and colors and we found that people love that…” expressed Tom. “So we literally melt the plastic, we stretch it, we layer the colors, we twist it, and we cut into it, and it just reveals all of these patterns. And then when we've got the pattern that we like, we put out a mold, and we press it, and then it's like, sealed in a moment in time, basically. And then every single one is unique.”

All Time Faves

Some of the teams favorite projects include what they titled, “The Childhood Memories Collection”. When the Barbie movie debuted they asked their customers to send in their old discarded Barbie dolls which they dismantled, turned into raw material, and then pressed into brand new powerbanks and speakers. They then shipped these back to their original owners- turning something sentimental into a new treasure.

Another project favorite was when Heineken threw a large launch party in Berlin, packaged up the party waste, and shipped it to Gomi. What resulted was branded and beautiful Heineken speakers that partygoers received as favors. Waste not, want not.

But Gomi isn’t just about recycling. They’re about repurposing with intention. Those Lime e-bike batteries? Gomi found a way to safely re-engineer and reuse them, creating the world’s only tech brand using repurposed batteries at scale. In a world where lithium and cobalt mining come with heavy environmental and human costs, this isn’t just cool—it’s critical.

A New Kind of Promo Product

Promotional products have long faced a dilemma: balancing brand beauty with environmental responsibility. Too often, it’s been one or the other. But we believe Gomi is a step in the right direction.

That’s why we’re proud to be partnering with Gomi as their US Office— localizing their repair process, and bringing their remarkable work to a wider audience.

Together, we’re launching a dedicated line of promotional powerbanks and a few other accessories: sustainably made, visually stunning, and as repairable as Gomi’s original products.