Plastic bottles have a lengthy résumé of environmental damages, earning membership into the “blight upon the Earth” club alongside toxic waste and greenhouse gases. Did you know that 38 billion water bottles end up in a landfill yearly? Did you know that plastic molecules seep into the bottle’s contents and contaminate them with hormone-disrupting phthalates in as little as 10 weeks? Better yet, the bottle itself costs more money than the water it holds! That’s almost as ridiculous as selling restaurant reservations to folks using the app called “Shout.” In an effort to combat this wasteful product, a team of London-based industrial design students, Rodrigo Garcia Gonzalez, Pierre Paslier, and Guillaume Couche, have created the Ooho, an edible, blob-like water container.
A single unit of Ooho is created using the “spherification” technique that uses brown algae and calcium chloride to create a gelatinous double membrane. The technique was originally conceived during 1946 and is culinary in nature, but was reintroduced to the present day by the restaurant elBulli in Spain. Inspiration for Ooho’s design is based on how egg yolks retain their shape due to a thin membrane and how liquid drops form.
Ooho is much more hygienic than it sounds; you’re not actually eating the membrane that’s been rolling around inside you backpack, so no separate packaging is necessary. The double gelatinous membrane allows the outer layer to be used as a natural form of packaging which may be also affixed with a label, independent of any adhesives. You only need to peel off this skin off in much the same way the skin is peeled, or squeezed, off of a grape bulb, to access the edible content.
Ooho’s scope extends beyond a commercial bottle alternative; its approach borders on the “do-it-yourself” or “cook-it-yourself” attitude of self-sustaining. Anyone can cook up their own Ooho with only a few ingredients and the size and shape of the membranes can be altered using stencil since the water freezes as the membranes form.
Ooho is currently under exhibit at Milan Design Wee, and is a recipient of the 2014 Lexus Design Award. For anyone eager to get their hands on an edible alternative in the very, very short run, Whole Foods is debuts a limited run product next month called Wikipearl. Wikipearl is resembles an Ooho broken down to size of bon bons.
Via Gizmodo
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