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ooho

Plastic bottles go far like shooting fish in a barrel to ship h2o, just it takes energy to brand the bottles. When you're done with your drink, it takes more than free energy to unmake the bottle, as plastics won't fully degrade on their own. Now a startup chosen Skipping Stone Labs thinks nosotros tin only skip plastic bottles entirely. It has developed a capsule called "Ooho!" for transporting h2o that is not only biodegradable, information technology'south edible.

Skipping Rock Labs was founded past three design students in London. They started thinking about the way water is stored and consumed on the go subsequently working on a program to collect and repurpose plastic bottles. They looked to nature to come up with a ameliorate manner, somewhen settling on a membrane construction. Membranes are used throughout nature because they're efficient — think cells, fruit, and eggs. They all use membranes to contain liquid, because it'due south efficient to accept cloth in traction rather than compression.

Ooho's membrane is composed mainly of seaweed. Based on the creators' original description of the product, Ooho membranes are a gelatin composed of sodium alginate from seaweed and calcium chloride. The resulting material is extremely inexpensive — each pouch of h2o costs simply two cents to produce. Because the membrane is entirely organic, y'all can eat information technology subsequently you drink the water.

Eating the membrane provides fifty-fifty more than hydration, but just because you can eat it doesn't hateful you lot'll want to. There'south no taste, and the texture is reportedly a bit unusual and takes some getting used to. It should be possible to add flavoring to the membrane to make them a bit more palatable. Still, you tin can but toss them in the bushes and they'll pause downward naturally. That'southward certainly more than you lot can say for a plastic bottle. Even the packaging for multiple Ooho water containers volition be equanimous of the biodegradable material.

The company first unveiled Ooho in 2014 after testing the design with people around the world. Now, Skipping Rock Labs is aiming for a wider rollout of Ooho by bringing it to events like music festivals and marathons. The company has been funded entirely with grants and awards thus far, just it'due south now doing a circular of funding. A campaign just wrapped up on CrowdCube, which is a bit similar Kickstarter or Indiegogo, except you're ownership a pocket-sized piece of the company. Skipping Stone Labs was looking for £400,000, and it virtually doubled that. Y'all might start seeing Ooho around more oftentimes in the coming months.