14 DAY TRIAL // London-based design students Rodrigo Garcia Gonzalez, Pierre Paslier and Guillaume Couche are now making headlines, all thanks to their developing a so-called edible water bottle.
Truth the told, their invention, pictured above, can only be called a bottle if one is willing to challenge common held assumptions about what one such container is supposed to look like.
Otherwise, referring to it as a sphere – a sphere that is a tad challenged in the beauty department, some might want to add – is probably the best thing to do. Daily Mail tells us that the water-carrying balloons rolled out by Rodrigo Garcia Gonzalez, Pierre Paslier, and Guillaume Couche are dubbed Ooho, and that they can be produced in various sizes, depending on how much water your average Joe or Jane wishes to carry around with them.
The spheres are made of a gelatinous algae membrane that the London-based design students say is surprisingly efficient when it comes to keeping the water from spilling all over the place. Besides, the material is argued to protect the liquid inside the balloons from potential contaminants.
According to the same source, students Rodrigo Garcia Gonzalez, Pierre Paslier, and Guillaume Couche got their inspiration for this project from egg yolks, whose runny insides are protected and kept in place by a very thin membrane.
The ingredients that the edible water bottle's makers used to create their eco-friendly containers are sodium alginate from brown algae and calcium chloride. Hence the fact that the balloons easily break down in the environment, and can even be eaten. As Rodrigo Garcia Gonzalez described them, they are, “simple, resistant, hygienic, biodegradable and even edible.”
The three London-based design students say that, all things considered, their edible water containers have high chances to yield noteworthy benefits in terms of environmental protection were they to start being used on a large scale.
Thus, they hope that one day, their innovative balloons will come to replace traditional plastic water bottles that more often than not end up in landfill despite the fact that they are perfectly recyclable.
Interestingly enough, the technique that Rodrigo Garcia Gonzalez, Pierre Paslier and Guillaume Couche employed to create these edible water bottles is fairly simple. Thus, the students resorted to gelification, i.e. a method of turning liquids into gel with the help of an edible gelling agent.
Consequently, the three investors say that, at some point in the future, people might actually be able to make such balloons in the privacy of their own homes.
As Rodrigo Garcia Gonzalez put it, “Nowadays only big companies have the infrastructure to manufacture packaging. The main idea of Ooho is that everyone could make them at their kitchen, modifying and innovating the recipe. From DIY to CIY (Cook It Yourself).”
These students’ edible water bottles were among the winners of the second annual Lexus Design Award, and rumor has it that they will go on sale in Boston, US sometime later this year.