Everything Under The Sun: The Amazing Edible Water Bottle

Wednesday, January 6, 2016

The Amazing Edible Water Bottle

The amazing sphere of water.

How many of us buy bottles of water, encased in plastic, then just discard that bottle without thinking much about it? I bet that's true of quite a few. Where do you think those discarded water bottles go? Well, those bottles don't just decay and become part of the soil overnight. It takes decades, maybe even centuries for the environment to absorb those discards, if it ever even happens. If you're one of those astute individuals, you know that those bottles can wreak havoc upon wild animals, cause some to get limbs caught in the openings, or if they have wider openings, they can trap snouts. And when that happens, animals die.

So, what can be done about this problem, outside of banning the sale of water in plastic bottles? Introducing three young men with backgrounds in industrial design - Rodrigo Garcia Gonzalez, Guillaume Couche, and Pierre Paslier. They are co-founders of SKIPPING ROCKS LAB, a startup company based in London.

The first issue that this company tackled was one-time use bottles. The amount of waste that is generated is staggering. They came up with a product known as Ooho!, which is a type of packaging material made from seaweed and comes in the form of a sphere. The properties of interest were that it is easy and inexpensive to produce, strong, biodegradable, safe for humans, and even edible. It offers the convenience of plastic without the environmental impact.

Oh, and one other thing - you can even make it at home. The material is an algae-based gel and it is able to provide servings of water encased in a squishy gel. Unlike certain other manufacturers, these young men decided to place their formula under a Creative Commons license, meaning that the recipe and instructions are out there and free to use for anyone who wants to duplicate the product. In fact, if you are interested in finding out how to make the spheres, the information is in this video: https://vimeo.com/106488023.

By the way, this little invention still does have a few glitches. As you can see in the video, the sphere doesn't function very well after you take the first drink; the liquid just flows out. There isn't any way to keep the spheres clean and sanitized, and if you get a little rough with it, all of the water leaks out.

Discarded one-use plastic bottles clog up our environment.

However, sometimes a start is needed to bring a product to complete fruition and placing the formula in the Creative Commons may inspire others to add materials that can address some of the product's shortcomings. At this stage of the design, one function that has appeared is that the material is bringing the issues of plastic pollution and water conservation into the public eye for discussion.