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Earth Technology

Designer Creates a Water Bottle That You Can Eat 171

Posted by samzenpus from the eating-trash dept.
Diggester (2492316) writes "Rodrigo García González has been working on the Ooho water bottle for the past few years. The bottle is made out of edible materials, looks like a jellyfish, and has the potential to put an end to the bottled water industry. Inspired by the juice-filled pearls added to bubble tea and the mad-cuisine creations of chef Ferran Adriá, who uses a technique known as sheperification (encasing liquid into edible membranes), García is on his way to revolutionizing the bottled water industry."
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Designer Creates a Water Bottle That You Can Eat More

Designer Creates a Water Bottle That You Can Eat

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  • Let's call the whole thing off.

  • Huh? (Score:2, Interesting)

    by p51d007 ( 656414 )
    Ok, the "bottle" can be eaten...but is the "bottle" placed in a sealed box or other container? Or, before use, do you have to sterilize it before use? Plus, not that it is healthy to reuse a water bottle, I see a lot of them being refilled around colleges, businesses, parks etc...

  • Pointless? (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday April 28, 2014 @08:52AM (#46857857)

    How

    can I refill it?
    how do I drink half a unit?
    how do I keep the outside clean enough to eat?

    • Re:Pointless? (Score:5, Informative)

      by shadowrat ( 1069614 ) on Monday April 28, 2014 @09:04AM (#46857923)
      I think edible implies that it's rapidly biodegradable. You are not commanded to eat it. You can throw it away, and if some enterprising sea turtle eats it, it's not big deal.

      • Re: (Score:3, Informative)

        by kruach aum ( 1934852 )

        Salt is edible but not bio-degradable.

        • False. Any salt is easily reduced to its component ions by exposing it to water.

        • it's a water condom.
          wouldn't want to eat that.

      • Besides, the empty skin looks like a used condom. Eeew.

      • How are you supposed to consume the water without eating the sphere?

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by alen ( 225700 )

      you're not supposed to refill plastic water bottles
      water breeds bacteria build up. i recycle mine. which in NYC means an old chinese lady takes it out of the garbage dump and takes it to the machine for $.05

      • you're not supposed to refill plastic water bottles
        water breeds bacteria build up.

        Daiso (online, Serramonte Plaza, Japan, etc) has "PET BOTTLE WASHER" brushes which are not for pet bottles, but for PET bottles — polyethylene. They have very soft bristles. They're probably just meant for making your trash spotless and clean before recycling, but you could use them for bottle reuse. But you can reuse a drinking vessel two or three times in rapid succession without any notable biofilm buildup, anyway.

      • Re:Pointless? (Score:4, Insightful)

        by Kiwikwi ( 2734467 ) on Monday April 28, 2014 @09:41AM (#46858303)

        you're not supposed to refill plastic water bottles

        Yes, there was a Danish study of this. A repeatedly refilled water bottle has a much higher level of bacteria etc. than tap water.

        It's still cleaner than regular bottled water, though.

        Turns out, all that bottled water sitting still at room temperature for months before purchase doesn't do anything for the water quality. Being a Danish study, all of the above assumes you have clean tap water, of course. YMMV.

        • Yes, there was a Danish study of this. A repeatedly refilled water bottle has a much higher level of bacteria etc. than tap water.

          That bacteria comes from your own mouth though (transferred as you drink from the bottle). While they'll grow to the point where you can smell them if left long enough, it's hardly a rationale for not refilling your own bottle. Unless you're in the habit of injecting a sugar or nutrient solution into your water bottle, I can guarantee you your mouth has higher levels of bacter

    • Re:Pointless? (Score:5, Insightful)

      by hodet ( 620484 ) on Monday April 28, 2014 @09:46AM (#46858359)

      Better yet, for most of the first world, just drink local water. It's idiotic to ship water that comes from a "public source" (aka "the tap") in a city hundreds of miles away.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by HiThere ( 15173 )

      I envisioned them as being rather like large tapioca pearls filled with water, and that they way you would "drink" them would be to pop a handful into your mouth and chew.

      OTOH, "looks rather like a jellyfish" is subject to numerous interpretations. It could be just a floppy thing that come in pint and liter sizes.

  • Almost there (Score:5, Funny)

    by lagomorpha2 ( 1376475 ) on Monday April 28, 2014 @08:53AM (#46857871)

    I'm still waiting for someone to invent a reusable water bottle. Then the bottled water industry will really be finished.

    • I really don't understand how the bottled water industry has become so big. Obviously there is a need for stores to sell bottled water, as we can't always have water on us, but I think it's gotten a little out of hand. When I'm going out for the day, or doing some kind of exercise, I almost always bring a reusable water bottle with me. If I'm not exercising and only going out for a few hours, I can get by without drinking anything until I return home. My main reason for all this is simply the price diff
      • You don't need to clean it, no one's going to steal it, and if you forget it or lose it, you're only out a dollar. People are paying for convenience, as they always do.

      • I can't believe that people would rather spend $1 on a bottle of water then fill it up from their own tap for less than a penny.

        Well first, most tap water is fucking horrible and most people aren't qualified to install a water filter, because they are useless lames whose only skill involves filing cabinets, or selling people shit they don't need, or one of many skills which have only been developed to support someone else's greed and are based on inefficiency and waste in our society. And second, you don't have access to your tap while you're not home, HTH HAND.

        I personally have installed an RO filter (any monkey with a crescent wre

        • I personally have installed an RO filter (any monkey with a crescent wrench should be able to do the same) and we have a crapload of klean kanteen-style stainless bottles...

          Stainless steel is a filthy metal [typinganimal.net] unless you're using the newer silver-coated stuff. [smartplanet.com]

          Seems a shame to use water from an expensive reverse osmosis filter in an inherently disease-friendly container - why not use a nice glass bottle, or a silver or copper one if you're worried about breakage?

          • Seems a shame to use water from an expensive reverse osmosis filter in an inherently disease-friendly container - why not use a nice glass bottle, or a silver or copper one if you're worried about breakage?

            Besides being expensive, silver and copper are shitty materials for water bottles due to their malleability, as is glass when you're out of the house. I drink from glass at home. For $3 I bought two brushes from Daiso which have a spinning handle so that you just sort of twirl them around and they spin inside the bottle. I line a half-dozen bottles up on the counter and wash them all in series.

            Glass builds up biofilm too, in practice only about twice as slow as stainless. The klean kanteen wasn't designed t

        • I am so glad I don't have a reverse-osmosis system. Besides the 95% water waste, it removes all the good stuff from the water. Horrible stuff.

          • I am so glad I don't have a reverse-osmosis system. Besides the 95% water waste, it removes all the good stuff from the water. Horrible stuff.

            I am so glad I don't have treated water. Besides the energy waste, it removes all the good stuff that might harm me from the water. Horrible stuff. I love amoeba. Wait, is that what you just said? There must be an echo in here.

            My water comes out of a well and the water waste goes into a septic system whose leachfield is in my front yard. The deer come by periodically and eat the grass that grows over it. I maintain the water system. I also manage to get plenty of salts in my diet via food, to which I apply

            • Carbon filter and UV FTW. I like calcium and magnesium carbonate in my water. What gives Bass Pale Ale its unique flavor is a ridiculously high carbonate content in Sheffield water (which they now truck in; they used to brew right next to the spring).

              I would totally move somewhere with a well and an exceedingly high content of carbonate in the ground water.

            • Re: (Score:2)

              by Belial6 ( 794905 )
              Your system requires one hell of a lot more knowledge to install and maintain than a simple set of instructions for installing under the sink. I was with you when you called out people on being intentionally helpless, but RO systems are extreamly wastefull. Your recycling system to prevent that waste is simply not accessable to everyone, and a lot more than just the parts under the sink.

              • Sure, but people could just install a simple cartridge filter under their sink that would remove 99.99% (and then some more nines, probably) of everything including heavy metals, VOCs, and chlorine. I just happen to have a more complicated filter, and it's still simple enough for a monkey to install, if that monkey knows how to turn a wrench.

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by Belial6 ( 794905 )
          RO filters are horribly wasteful. In large parts of the country, they should just be outright banned

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by sjames ( 1099 )

          Surely even a complete idiot can manage one of those pitchers with the water filter in it. Or a filter that replaces the aerator on the sink.

      • I don't get it either and really pissed me off as such a waste since you know most poeple are throwing it in the trash instead of putting in recycling. Now I don't use tap water for my regular drinking water as I don't particularly like the taste, so I instead have a water cooler which costs about 26 cents a litre however it is spring water so it tastes really good. So while it is still expensive I don't feel quite as bad since it doesn't cost near as much as bottled water and they reuse them. I just can't

        • since you know most poeple are throwing it in the trash instead of putting in recycling.

          Many years ago, recycling came to the area I live.

          So, they started with the "we want you to recycle, since it'll reduce the cost of waste disposal".

          Then they gave out the free recycle bins, to help make it easier for them to do the recycling.

          Alright, reasonable enough, we began recycling.

          Then they tacked a recycling fee onto our waste disposal fee. So rather than reduce the cost of waste disposal, recycling INCREASE

      • I really don't understand how the bottled water industry has become so big.

        Well, first thing they did was spend a great deal of money convincing everyone that tap water tasted bad.

        Once you've got people convinced that the tap water tastes bad, it's not hard convincing them that YOUR water tastes good (even if it's Dasani - tap water run through a filter).

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by sjames ( 1099 )

        It is amazing. People buying what usually turns out to be charcoal filtered tap water for more than gas costs. For a month's worth, they could buy a good water filter.

  • But why would I ever want to eat the bottle?

  • Contamination (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Scutter ( 18425 ) on Monday April 28, 2014 @08:59AM (#46857897) Journal

    So, for the bottle to be edible, it's going to have a removable, non-edible outer wrapping to protect it from contamination during the shipping, handling, and sales process. That means you've just moved the problem one layer out. You're still going to be generating waste.

    • If we decide to not eat it at all (and skip the extra wrapping), I guess it could make for a quickly-decomposing water bottle. Not sure how we prevent it from self-destructing itself while still on the shelf, though...

    • Re:Contamination (Score:5, Informative)

      by KingOfBLASH ( 620432 ) on Monday April 28, 2014 @09:35AM (#46858245) Journal

      From TFA the technique is already in use with some yogurt. You buy a box of yogurt "balls" that are edible, flavored, and filled with yogurt. When you pack your lunch for school or work you simply grab a ball of yogurt out of the box instead of a yogurt in an individual plastic container. Presumably the box is easier to recycle then the plastic containers.

      This is interesting in the sense that it generates LESS waste and the waste it generates is biodegradable. The "container" is something from brown algae so I guess you could just compost the thing, much like an eggshell...

      • This is interesting in the sense that it generates LESS waste and the waste it generates is biodegradable. The "container" is something from brown algae

        ...and nobody wants to drink from it except kids who don't care if they wind up wearing the contents. We already have compostable plastic bottles made from algae. This "solves" a problem which has already been solved in a superior fashion.

        • This "solves" a problem which has already been solved in a superior fashion.

          I'll bet the first solution wasn't patentable and the newer one is.

          Progress!

    • You made a bad assumption. Specifically that humans will eat the bottle. Merely having an edible bottle - and allowing dogs, birds, rats, cockroaches, etc. to eat the bottle - would solve a lot of the problem - the landspace and pollution that disposing of said bottle takes.
  • They will just go and convert their product to be disposible water spherification carriers.

  • and has the potential to put an end to the bottled water industry.

  • Look out bottle industry. People have been wanting to eat those plastic things that slide down your dirty aluminum rollers and get touched by every customer.
  • Impossible to transport, can't eat it if someone touched it on the shelf which means it needs plastic packaging (lol), and Willy Wonka has prior art and likely a patent.

  • The bottle is made out of edible materials

    They could make a lot more money if they used the edible materials to make bongs.

  • How much did they pay you, Slashdot? (Score:3)

    by kheldan ( 1460303 ) on Monday April 28, 2014 @10:06AM (#46858591) Journal
    Is Slashdot now a shilling-for-hire website?
    This is not going to kill the bottled water industry, it's not going to do anything, it's some sort of joke at best and rediculous at worst. You'd have to package the damned thing in order to ship them to stores and the packaging would cancel out the lack of a plastic bottle. Instead of zero-calorie water you're drinking, now there's some weird substance containing it that you're supposed to eat? Who the hell would want that, people who buy bottled water want water, not some weird 'alginate' snack! What about this 'alignate'? Since it's edible, won't it also have a shelf life? Won't it go bad long before the water it's containing and have to be discarded? Isn't that also kind of stupid in and of itself? So far as 'solutions looking for a problem' this scores pretty high, even if I personally think that bottled water is a scam and people should just get their own refillable bottle instead.
    • You have misunderstood the real advantage of the bottle. You don't package it, you let it collect bacteria and garbage.

      People don't eat the bottle. Dogs, birds, bugs, rats, squirrels, etc. eat the bottle.

      It's not about feeding people, it's about preventing a ton of non-degradable plastic from filling up our land fills.,

      As for shelf life, you keep it in the refrigerator at a convenience store. There may be a small shelf life problem, but it greatly solves the garbage dump life problem.

      • As I said, people should just get a refillable bottle and use that instead, voila, no more non-degradable plastic waste problem. If you still want to argue that even those are going to create plastic waste, then get a nice insulated aluminum or stainless steel water bottle instead. Either way one-time expense and will last for years and years, probably bloody well forever if you take care of them.

  • as the potential to put an end to the bottled water industry

    ORLY?

    How strong is it? How easily gripped is it while running or cycling? Can you refill it? Can you reseal it? Can you drink it without dribbling all over the table?

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?... [youtube.com]

    Sold!

  • A bunch of you foolishly think humans are supposed to eat this. So you foolishly think it needs an outer layer.

    The point of making it edible is not so that humans can eat it, but instead so that after we finish drinking from it we can throw it on the ground and let birds, dogs, bus, etc eat it. No outer layer needed.

    That said, this concept still needs a lot more work before it goes into production

  • In an ideal world, Ooho would replace the 50 billion plastic bottles that Americans consume each year.

    Sorry, but I've never consumed a plastic bottle.

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