Skipping Rocks Lab has crafted an alternative to plastic bottled water. Made entirely from natural ingredients, it is both edible and biodegradable.

Described fondly as an ‘edible water blob’, the Ooho is a natural alternative to plastic bottled water, made from seaweed and plants. It is completely edible, so consumers can drink their water and then eat the container. It is also completely biodegradable, and degrades in just four to six weeks – similar to a piece of fruit and significantly faster than conventional PET alternatives that can hang around for hundreds of years. The packaging can be coloured and flavoured to encourage consumers to eat it rather than throw it away. Ooho’s developers estimate that their product requires one ninth of the energy required to produce PET bottles, and results in one fifth of the CO2 emissions.

At present, this product is mainly being showcased at events, while the developers work on scaling up the manufacturing facilities. They’ve been used at sporting events and charity runs to provide competitors with a fun and convenient drinking source that creates far less waste than plastic bottles or cups.

Around the world we consume around 20,000 plastic bottles every second, and less than half of these are recycled. Innovations like Ooho are providing alternatives to single use plastics, in order to alleviate pressure on waste and recycling streams and reduce plastic pollution.

Responsible consumption and production
Waste has been creatively designed out of the Ooho capsules, because the whole product can be either consumed or biodegraded.

Life below water
Ooho directly tackles plastic pollution in marine ecosystems by offering an alternative to single-use plastic bottles.