Recycled cardboard speakers for on the go by Origaudio. (photo: Origaudio)

Origaudio cardboard speakers let you and your friends listen to music from your iPod without pretension or the need for additional batteries.

Everyone travels with their music these days. Those white iPod earbuds are about as ubiquitous as the ears they are supposed to stay in. The problem is that sometimes you don’t want to be encumbered by headphones and wires; or you might find the occasion to want to share your music with a friend or co-worker — and that’s when having a good pair of portable speakers comes in handy.

But if you don’t want to buy any more plastic crap and still want the freedom of having a pair of portable and affordable speakers? Look no further than the new OrigAudio recycled cardboard speakers, as they may be just what you are looking for.

Origaudio speakers are light and easy to stack, balance or hang.

The good folks at OrigAudio sent me a pair of their unique speaker design for a test listen and I have to say I was both impressed with the sound these little no-battery-required speakers are able to pump out, but also with the pricepoint at which they are being made available: 16 bucks. (Just $10 with the promo code below!)

Made from recycled “newspapers, phone books and pizza boxes” the OrigAudio Speaker Cubes fold nearly flat and come in five original designs. You can even design your speaker design at the OrigAudio website and they will reproduce as many of the originals you want.

Now I’ve only had the Origaudio speakers for a little over a month and it is hard to say how well they would hold up after being folded and unfolded several times; or how well they would hold up to extended exposure to moisture. But when you consider that extreme climatic conditions can be rough for almost any electronics, this point may be moot. I mean, how often would you let your speakers sit out in the rain, anyway? So maybe they’re not made of the most durable material on the planet, but I believe that’s the point. Once the Origaudio speakers reach their useful lifetime, they can be recycled or even composted (minus the actual speaker component and wire).

Perhaps OrigAudio will, at some point offer to replace the cardboard for a nominal fee for those expired speaker boxes. I understand that they need to turn a profit, but if they actually want to make these things green, some sort of recycling or repurposing program seems like the “right” thing to do, otherwise they’ll just end up in landfills like their plastic cousins. But it also seems like it just makes good business sense.

OrigAudio has offered a $6.00 discount to greenUPGRADER’s readers for any purchase of their recycled cardboard speakers. Use the promo coupon code: “Friends” to receive the instant discount at checkout.

(Update 11/27/09: A little over a month and several listens later, the OrigAudio speakers are in the same condition they were when I wrote this.)