Environmental Protection: Will Edible Water Bottles Cut Down on Food Waste, as Well as Plastic Waste?
How many plastic water bottles do Americans use every year? Well, according to Smithsonian Magazine, it’s about 50 billion. That’s a big number, so here’s another way to understand it; every year, about 1.5 million barrels of oil are used specifically to make these plastic water bottles.
That creates a colossal amount of waste, as you can imagine. After all, these bottles don’t degrade much, and they can stick around for centuries if we don’t round them up and recycle them (something we aren’t doing at nearly high enough rates). Since a huge amount of these bottles wind up in the ocean, that makes our job even harder, and it contributes to many of the trash islands that grow in the ocean year by year. But what’s the alternative? Make sure everyone brings their own water bottle wherever they go?
Well, you can do that. But several years ago Rodrigo Gonzalez came up with a product that would allow us to keep our single-use water bottles while completely eliminating their pollution aspect.
The idea was edible water bottles.
How Does An Edible Water Bottle Work?
This idea, referred to as the Ooho, is pretty simple. To make it, a frozen sphere of water is dipped into a solution to give it a simple glycerin coating. Then it’s dipped into a second solution made from brown seaweed extract. The result is a dual-layered water ball that you can actually eat. All you have to do is peel it like a fruit, and enjoy the refreshment. If you want to see what that looks like, all you have to do is watch this video.
Now imagine if that was the norm, instead of a novelty. And ask yourself what we could do with all those old water bottles we no longer have a need for.