These little orbs are called Ooho! These little orbs may seem a bit impractical at first but they serve a very good purpose, to reduce plastic pollution. 80% of plastic bottles are either thrown away or thrown on the ground after people have finished drink out of them. Water bottles are not bio-degradable so when the are thrown on the ground they just sit there and sometimes can end up in our oceans and cause plastic pollution. These little blobs on the other hand, ARE bio-degradable and are safe for the earth. So, if they are thrown on the ground they will just be decomposed by other organisms.
Also these little orbs can be made right in your kitchen! Typical water bottles need to be made with CO2 and different fossil fuels but these orbs don't need any of those to be made. All they need are some Sodium Alginate, Calcium Lactate and water. All ingredients needed to make these orbs can be found on amazon and are pretty inexpensive. On average its costs about 2 cents per unit to make these obes. To make these you could either follow the recipe exactly or you could modify and innovate the recipe as needed.
A problem with these orbs is that they can very easily be broken. Just one bit into them and they pop! That could be a big problem with keeping these orbs bare inside of you backpack or purse with sharp objects such as pens and pencils could cause the orbs to pop and then all the water inside the orbs will go everywhere and get your bag wet.
It will take a while for these orbs to officially replace water bottles for good, but they are stepping in the right direction of making our world a more Eco-friendly! Have fun wiping up a batch of these water blobs!
Work Cited:
Metcalfe, John. “This Futuristic Water Bottle Is an Edible, Gelatinous Blob.” The Atlantic, CityLab, 18 Mar. 2015, www.citylab.com/amp/article/388087/.
How long do the "bottles" last and how will they be used in transport (IE: In a backpack or bag)? Also could the skins as they are made of natural and biodegradable material be consumed? I feel if not then there would be a large hazard for children.
ReplyDeleteit takes about 450 years for the orb to be completely decomposed so they last a really long time. As fir the toughness of the orbs, they are definitely not as strong as plastic. they can easily be broken by just biting into them. i don't know how they will stand up to sharp objects in a bag or purse. Finally yes, the materials needed to create these orbs are safe to be consumed.
DeleteSuper cool invention! I'm honestly looking forwards to seeing this out in the public. How do you think this would affect London, or maybe even some third-world countries that have trouble getting water in the first place?
ReplyDeletefor London, it would definitely help with reducing the amount of plastic people use daily. For third-world countries, at the moment i don't think they would be much use because it might be hard for people in those countries to get a hold of the materials needed for these orbs.
DeleteThis seems pretty cool and helpful to the planet. You stated that all the ingredients for the orbs can be found on Amazon and are inexpensive. Just how much do the ingredients for the orbs cost?
ReplyDeleteBoth the ingredients cost around $10-$20.
DeleteHow durable are they? Would they break if you had it in your bag with harder, sharper objects?
ReplyDeletewith them being able to be broken by simply biting into them, i don't think they could hold up to sharp objects in a bag or purse
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