One solution, Ooho! – a gelatinous biodegradable membrane that can either be eaten or thrown away, has just been recognised as one of five ideas that could radically change the world.
What is Ooho?
Every year in the UK we use 275,000 tonnes of plastic; the equivalent of 15 million bottles per day. Despite an increase in recycling levels, the majority of this waste still ends up going into landfill. For that reason there is a massive incentive to develop more environmentally friendly packaging solutions to replace the plastic water bottle.
Created by Rodrigo Garcia Gonzalez, a postgraduate student at Imperial College London, the Ooho is an edible water bottle that has the potential to combat the waste that is generated by the billions of plastic bottles that we dispose of every year. Jellyfish-like in its appearance, tasteless and several years in the making, the idea harnesses the technique of spherification used to make fake caviar.
How Does It Work?
The bottle is produced by dipping a frozen ball of water into a calcium chloride solution. This is then dipped in a second brown algae extract solution, encapsulating the ice in a second membrane and reinforcing the structure. The design is intended to reproduce natural membranes like an egg yolk.
Bottle Facts:
- In Britain we consume 3 billion litres of bottled water every year
- The bottled water industry in the UK is worth £2billion per year
The team behind the idea admit that a number of teething problems need to be ironed out – specially making the membrane robust enough to transport, making the bottle re-sealable and keeping the skin sanitary on the go.
Recognition
Despite being far from the finished article, the idea has been shortlisted by The Global Design Forum as one of “fives ideas to shake the world”. The forum, a UK government-backed event, said the novel packaging could one day “make the ubiquitous and unsustainable water bottle obsolete”.
The Environment
At Coda Plastics we understand the impact that plastic has on the environment and, for that reason, have put in place a number of measures over the years to reuse as much of the waste we produce as possible.
If you would like to find out more about how we can assist you in the development of innovate packaging solutions, do not hesitate to contact us.
