Ooho, a biodegradable, water balloon-like blob, could soon be a cheap, environmentally friendly alternative to the ubiquitous plastic bottle.
See also: 10 Best Water Filtration Bottles
Up to nearly 50% of 2.4 million tons of discarded plastic comes from plastic water bottles, according to the Clean Air Council If eventually mass produced, Ooho could go a long way toward reducing this waste.
“The reality is that every day more, when we drink water we throw away a plastic bottle,” Rodrigo García González, one of three London-based industrial design students behind the project, told Mashable. “This act of consumerism reflects the society in which we live. Ooho proposes an alternative.”
Trapped inside two layers of membrane made of brown algae and calcium chloride, water is released from the glob of liquid when its casing is punctured. The membrane can then either be eaten or thrown away, similar to the skin of an apple.
Though it’s not as sturdy as a water bottle, García González said a collection of smaller Oohos could be kept in a bigger one with a thicker membrane to prevent unwanted spills (and so that not all of the water has to be consumed in one fell swoop) and its double-membrane design would keep the product hygienic (you could peel back the first one and sip from the second). It may not be the neatest way to hydrate, as seen in this Fast Company video, but according to García González smaller Oohos will be easier to sip without getting wet.
The container has a creative commons license to encourage innovation and, with the right materials and know-how anyone could, in theory, create one in their own home.
Ooho was inspired by similar cases of membranes found in nature such as egg yolks. The container is assembled using spherification — a technique that shapes liquid into spheres and roots going back to the 1940s. In an effort to keep the final product as large as possible and to keep the components of the membrane separate, the water is frozen during this process.
WikiPearl, a new product sold only in four Massachusetts-based Whole Foods, stretches the limits of packaging using similar methods. The spherical finger food can contain anything from ice cream to a cosmopolitan in a bite-sized parcel. Molecular gastronomy, popularized by chefs such as Spaniard Ferràn Adria and Englishman Heston Blumenthal, is a controversial method of cooking that uses similar techniques in its experimentation with the physical and chemical abilities of ingredients.
Ooho won a 2014 Lexus Design Award and will be showcased at this year’s Milan Design Week.
Adafruit publishes a wide range of writing and video content, including interviews and reporting on the maker market and the wider technology world. Our standards page is intended as a guide to best practices that Adafruit uses, as well as an outline of the ethical standards Adafruit aspires to. While Adafruit is not an independent journalistic institution, Adafruit strives to be a fair, informative, and positive voice within the community – check it out here: adafruit.com/editorialstandards
Stop breadboarding and soldering – start making immediately! Adafruit’s Circuit Playground is jam-packed with LEDs, sensors, buttons, alligator clip pads and more. Build projects with Circuit Playground in a few minutes with the drag-and-drop MakeCode programming site, learn computer science using the CS Discoveries class on code.org, jump into CircuitPython to learn Python and hardware together, TinyGO, or even use the Arduino IDE. Circuit Playground Express is the newest and best Circuit Playground board, with support for CircuitPython, MakeCode, and Arduino. It has a powerful processor, 10 NeoPixels, mini speaker, InfraRed receive and transmit, two buttons, a switch, 14 alligator clip pads, and lots of sensors: capacitive touch, IR proximity, temperature, light, motion and sound. A whole wide world of electronics and coding is waiting for you, and it fits in the palm of your hand.
Have an amazing project to share? The Electronics Show and Tell is every Wednesday at 7:30pm ET! To join, head over to YouTube and check out the show’s live chat and our Discord!
Python for Microcontrollers – Adafruit Daily — Python on Microcontrollers Newsletter: MicroPython v1.24.0 is here, a Halloween Wrap-up and Much More! #CircuitPython #Python #micropython @ThePSF @Raspberry_Pi
EYE on NPI – Adafruit Daily — EYE on NPI Maxim’s Himalaya uSLIC Step-Down Power Module #EyeOnNPI @maximintegrated @digikey