We want to solve home appliance waste
Every year almost a million tonnes of appliance waste is generated in the UK alone. In the race to grow profits, appliance manufacturers have steadily degraded the quality of their products, resulting in an average lifespan today of just 7 years for the average toaster. What’s more, this focus on reducing unit costs has resulted in products that cannot be repaired affordably, if at all. So if even one part fails - the electronics, a timer or a latch - the whole thing ends up in the bin. Today, home appliances are effectively disposable.
It wasn’t always this way. Search eBay and you can find examples of appliances made in the 1950s that are still operational today. Our mission is to recapture that lost knowledge, combine it with contemporary design and manufacturing, and create appliances that are designed to still be operating for the grandchildren of the purchaser.
Our starting point is the humble toaster. Read more about why here. Subscribe to stay up to date with our endeavour.
About this blog
The styling of this blog is inspired by Low Tech Magazine’s low energy website. It’s hosted on a RaspberryPi and solar powered, so when it’s cloudy in Barcelona it goes offline, which I love for several reasons. Although we haven’t yet gone to that extreme, we’ve mimicked their use of dithered images. This approach radically reduces the image file size, and therefore the energy it consumes to download. I think it’s also a great example of where principled, self-imposed constraints can lead to a distinctive look - something we hope we can achieve with our toaster.
