What if you could have a water bottle without the wasteful, toxic plastic? (And a water fountain doesn’t count. Not consumer-y enough, Buddha.) Three British design students wanted to answer that question, seeing as we’re basically drowning in plastic. Their Lexus Design Award-winning solution is the portable, edible, and weird-looking Ooho: an edible water “bottle” that resembles alien sweat. (We kickbox with a lot of aliens, OK?)
To drink the Ooho, you gently bite its gelatinous membrane until the water runs into your mouth and all over your clothes, ideally making it look like you peed yourself. As a bonus, if you don’t eat the outside, you’re basically left with a used condom:
We dig the idea of rethinking and reducing packaging, but even with its double-layered design, the Ooho doesn’t seem quite as durable as throwing a plastic water bottle into the bottom of your gym bag. Plus, there’s the cleanliness factor — what’s to keep the outer layer of brown algae and calcium chloride from getting grimy? (At least it’ll probably compost better than an Alpine Spring bottle.)
The Ooho doesn’t seem shelf-ready yet, but edible packaging is inevitable: Boston Whole Foods customers will see the WikiPearl on shelves, little nuggets of ice cream, yogurt, cheese, and even veggies inside an edible skin. Seems like a weird fad, but if it’ll save resources and keep junk outta landfills and oceans, we just might try it.
