An edible water bottle is what you might use in the future, instead of plastic bottles, to drink your water. A lot of startups are showing promising results in this area, which will be a great thing for the environment, and a few of these startups are in India.
An edible water ball named Ooho will help you have water without the wasteful toxic plastic. Developed by a London-based startup, it hopes to replace the millions of plastic bottles thrown away every year. The ball can be fully swallowed and digested, as well as hydrating people in the same way as drinking water does. The ball has a biodegradable membrane made from a seaweed extract.
London Marathon runners were given a surprising thirst quencher during their run: edible seaweed pouches filled with a sports drink.
Volunteers at the London Marathon handed out 30,000 seaweed capsules full of water instead of plastic bottles. This company is looking to make that the norm pic.twitter.com/zMARpHTcX6
— Bloomberg QuickTake (@QuickTake) April 29, 2019
To drink and eat the ‘Ooho’, you gently bite its gelatinous membrane until the water runs into your mouth. A compound made from algae and calcium chloride creates a gel around the water. The double membrane protects the inside hygienically and makes it possible to put labels between the two layers without any adhesive.
The outer membrane of these edible water capsules are made from seaweed and plants that disappear, naturally, says Notpla that makes packaging solutions for Ooho.
A sachet whose shelf-life matches the shelf-life of its content. Cool huh? Our Ooho sachets are 100% made of seaweed and plants, which means that they naturally biodegrade in only 6-8 weeks. You can throw them up in general waste, or even in your home compost! #notpla #ooho pic.twitter.com/JxSyLTMspv
— Notpla (@notpla) June 18, 2020
One immediate use for the ‘Ooho’ water blob could be for long-distance runners who usually hydrate by grabbing paper cups or water bottles from spectators as they run. ‘Ooho’ offers a waste-free alternative as runners could carry it with them, hydrate and grab a bite too!
London Marathon commits to zero waste to landfill by December 2020
Perhaps London Marathon may not be able to achive the target it had set, due to the Covid-19 pandemic this year, but they made a huge improvement in 2019 compared to 2018.- Plastic bottles in the marathon were made from recycled plastic
- Drink stations were reduced from 26 to 19
- One drink station offered edible seaweed sachets which biodegrade in four to six weeks.
- These steps effectively reducing 215,000 plastic bottles from 2018.
London Marathon Events today committed to becoming a world leader in delivering sustainable mass participation sports events. 🙌#LondonMarathon♻️ #OneLess pic.twitter.com/Fj6ys9ALk7
— Virgin Money London Marathon (@LondonMarathon) April 4, 2019
This product can also be immensely helpful in India, where maximums during summers easily exceed 40⁰C and heatstrokes are common. Besides, there will be less plastic waste produced in India.
And it seems it’s not very difficult to make an edible water “bottle”; you can make one yourself using the process of spherification. Check out this video below.
Even in India, a Bengaluru based start-up ‘Workbench Projects’ are preparing these ‘Water Blobs’ (edible water pods) from natural seaweeds (these are high in nutritional value as well).
Rujuta Diwekar says ‘carry your own water’
While drinking water is freely available when you are outdoors, we are not sure if its free of water borne diseases. That is why bottled water is co convenient and popular among Indians.
However, there’s a downside to using bottled water, but it has got nothing to do with health.
Celebrity nutritionist Rujuta Diwekar in her recent Instagram post mentioned – “Strict NO to bottled water. It takes three liters of groundwater (a common resource) to make one litre of bottle water, which is then sold for an exorbitant price. Not to mention, the non-biodegradable plastic it generates.”
This is why Rujuta recommends carrying your own drinking water, for the sake of our environment and good health. Rujuta recommends drinking matka water with khus khus or vetiver soaked in it to beat summer blues.
Summer is also the perfect time to indulge in seasonal sherbets like varyali, bel, panha, kokum and nimbu pani. Coconut water is also a healthy option to have.
This is just so cool. This can be life changing, it can stop quite a bit of plastic production. Countries throw away billions of plastic bottles every year so this is really great.