One Startup’s Trash
Skeppsbron and Hamm, from E-metabolism by Andra Formen (image: Fabian Frinzel).
What compels humans to shove things into canals? Whatever the answer, the urge to turf humanmade objects into humanmade waterways leaves cities with a problem: an underwater wasteland of shopping trolleys, bicycles and, increasingly, e-scooters.
If you live somewhere where they’re legal, electrified rental vehicles in acid-bright colours will be a familiar sight. Micromobility startups flush with venture capital have brought an estimated 360,000 e-scooters to streets across Europe. But when these vehicles’ batteries die and their GPS goes on the blink – say, for instance, when someone pushes them into a canal – they fall off grid, becoming a rusting hunk of metal that leeches toxic chemicals into the environment.
Take Malmö, a canal-ringed city on the coast of southern Sweden. In recent years e-scooters have been dredged from Malmö’s waterways by the city, aided by the involvement of volunteers. “We recovered 250 scooters last year,” reveals diver Pero Rasič. “We tried to contact the companies but they didn’t want to hear.”
One local design studio did hear, however. When Christian Svensson, Jingbei Zheng, Peder Nilsson and Oskar Olsson, the founders of Andra Formen, read about the divers’ work in the local papers, they decided to engage in some guerrilla urban-waste recovery, planning to utilise the e-scooters as a repository of aluminium and other resources. Andra Formen approached Malmö’s divers, who readily agreed to go on an e-scooter fishing trip. The next challenge was taking the recovered vehicles apart. “They’re not made to be recycled or repaired,” says Nilsson. “There are hundreds of different types of screws and other parts are glued together. You need an axle grinder to take them apart.”
Aluminium Abomination, from E-metabolism by Andra Formen.
Andra Formen took a nose-to-tail approach to developing the retrieved e-scooters into a new series of household objects: the E-metabolism series. Large pieces such as the steering column have been Frankensteined into chairs and an angled desk light, while the conductive metals have been used to create haptic lamps that respond to touch with a rainbow display. Across the collection, branding was kept intact: Andra Formen wants the pieces’ former incarnations to remain recognisable, so as to acknowledge the waste piling up in waterways. “If the scooter companies start talking to us, then they have to realise there is a problem,” explains Svensson. “Then they will be held responsible.” The trademarked logos blaring from the designs are confrontational, daring corporations to claim their waterlogged progeny with a copyright infringement claim. “Our aim is to start a discussion,” says Zheng. “Hopefully the companies will have a better system in the future.”
Finding ways to repurpose these e-scooters has become necessary given the rate at which the vehicles are replaced. “We read that it takes two years for one to pay for itself,” says Olsson, “but their average lifespan is only nine months.” Andra Formen’s local supply of waterlogged waste may be about to dry up, however, with Sweden having moved to ban the culprits from being ridden anywhere but the road from September 2022. “It’s the end of the line for e-scooters on pavements,” said infrastructure minister Tomas Eneroth. “Playtime’s over.”
Words India Block
Photographs Fabian Frinzel
This article was originally published in Disegno #34. To buy the issue, or subscribe to the journal, please visit the online shop.