by Jaymi Heimbuch, San Francisco, California
Design & Architecture

Photos via Jaymi Heimbuch
One of the things I love most about Maker Faire is the wide variety of projects made from what would normally be considered trash. After all, to makers, trash is simply raw materials that other people keep putting into buckets on the street. One such upcycling project is Trash Amp, which is transforming everything from soda cans to Chinese take-out boxes into speakers for your music.
Trash Amps are essentially a small electronic insert that you can place into items you might normally place in the recycling bin, to make them in to unique speakers. The Trash Amps insert is not cheap — it goes for $50 on the website. Oddly, you can also buy cans for $3.99 from the website though I’m not sure why you would… it’d be a lot cheaper to go filch a can from someone’s recycling bin.
But apparently the sound is entirely worth the price of the insert:

It’s an interesting idea and we love the concept of reusing recyclables to create more interesting speakers. When you get bored of it, you can just swap it out for something new and it feels like a brand new gadget. However, we’d love the concept even more if Trash Amps created the inserts with recycled electronic components. The company currently uses some surplus parts, and is working toward incorporating more would-be-e-waste into their design. We’re cheering them on.
Follow Jaymi on Twitter for more stories like this
(Source: www.treehugger.com )