PostIndustrial is a concept for 21st century home goods that are made from abandoned 20th century communication infrastructure.
Personal Project
2 Months
Asher Blackburn
Max Stropkay
Supawat Vitoorapakorn
Industrial Design
Branding
Research
Our team visiting AAA Scraps to learn more about coax cable’s afterlife
(That’s about half the circumference of the Earth)
As people move away from cable TVs and wired phones towards fibre optics and 5G, older communication infrastructures are getting abandoned in favour for newer ones. Coax cables are everywhere. It's in your walls, your basement, and even on your city's street.
Pre-Netflix this is how TV was delivered. Your home probably still has this outlet.
By weight, coax cables are less than 1% copper. After visiting our local scrapyard, we learnt that these wires are simply tossed in the landfill because it’s not worth it to strip and recycle its many layers.
Cable companies have gotten away with this form of urban pollution because of outdated policy and a lack of awareness. Cleaning your home and city from coax cable improves property value, and up-cycling cables prevents them from entering the landfill.
Mission
Post-Industrial’s goal is to up-cycle abandoned communication infrastructure and turn it into household products. Each item we sell decreases the amount of waste that litters the city and may end up in a landfill. Residents and homeowners are encouraged to learn how to safely remove cable and can send in cables for discounts on products. Post-Industrial also incentivizes scrapyards to help collect wires by purchasing the coax cable they collect.
All items purchased come with a tag that shows how much abandoned wires were used in creating the object.
PostIndustrial’s product ranges from small home goods to bigger furniture like chairs and tables.
Vision
We pay for our cables and invest in our local scrapyards’ sorting facilities.
We prevent abandoned cables from ending up in the landfill.
Our products help get rid of wires from Pittsburgh’s streets and basements.
Big telecom and electric companies have installed coax cables in most homes and connected them to telephone poles. When electricians or demolitionists take these cables down, they send them to the scrapyard or landfill.
Post-Industrial incentivizes local scrapyards, electricians, and residents to turn in abandoned cables by establishing a market value for the wires.
Our team visited a local Pittsburgh scrapyard and learned that the lack of copper in coax cables meant it had no value recycled. We spoke with all of the big cable companies and learned that when they do cut down wires they throw them away. While collecting the wires to use in testing and prototyping, we talked to several local pittsburgh residents. Our team realized that most people didn’t know the wires were dead and could be taken down.
Before conducting research with people and materials, I looked at the history coaxial cables to gain a better contextual undestanding of the problem.
Manufacturing of the TAT-1 (Transatlantic No.1) coaxial cable from ATT’s Archive
Most people cannot tell the difference beteween communication cables and electric cables. Fewer people are even aware of their rights to demand communication companies or landlords to remove these abandoned cable.
Helping a neighbor remove unwanted cables
Months of experimentation went into finding the best construction method for coax cable. Many different methods were tested including: weaving, gluing, soldering, jigging, and more.
Helping a neighbor remove unwanted cables
Collecting cables from basement
Trying to make a hammock
Trying to weave a doormat
Creating a jig
Applying rubber cement
Using a “lathe-jig” to speed things up
Planters, hanging lamp, and clocks
How to make hanging lamp
Standing lamp
How to get cable companies to buy their own waste
Illustration of how to mass manufacture rotational forms from coaxial cables
With most people transitioning to fiber optics and 5G, abandoned communication infrastructure is a global problem. While the context that PostIndustrial was designed for is Pittsburgh, USA, every major city in the world will be facing a similar challenge in the next few years: what to do with the e-waste from old instrastructure?
E-waste generally moves from high to low income countries, ScienceDirect
In Bangkok, Thailand where I come from these wires are illegally burned to scavenge for copper. Burning PVC can kill you. The gas it creates is chemical weapon used in wars. And most of the wires burned doesn’t even come from Thailand. An alternative to burning, will prevent many early deaths in these area.
The Price of Recycling Old Laptops: Toxic Fumes in Thailand’s Lungs, NYT
An innovation isn't really innovative when only a few know about the idea.
In this sense, this project is not complete. We've came up with a novel method of up-cycling coax cable, and now the next step would be to spread the idea. The plan is to use social media platforms like Youtube and DIY communities like Instructable to spread this idea with a video. Combining social media with Design has huge potential, and I'm currently practicing this craft with a few videos first before I re-engage with this concept.
