I am going to share with you an amazing invention by London based start-up company 'Skipping Rocks Lab'. They have started making innovative balls called 'Ooho balls' with an aim to provide a solution to London's plastic waste problem. These are small transparent spherical balls filled with natural or flavoured water. Meaningfully, the punch line of this company is 'We make packaging disappear'.

What is Ooho?

 It is 100% made of Plants & Seaweed

 Biodegradable in 4-6 weeks, just like a piece of fruit

 Edible, can be flavoured and coloured

 Fresh (shelf life of a few days)

 5x less CO₂, 9x less Energy vs PET

 Cheaper than plastic

Last month, they did a trial near London Bridge where they displayed these balls and offered them to public to consume/eat them. In this trial, the innovative balls drew a mixture of surprise, amusement and delight among those who sampled them.

With many cities around the world struggling to dispose of vast numbers of used plastic water bottles, the biodegradable 'Ooho balls' have begun quenching the thirst of consumers at special events in San Francisco and London.

The balls, which resemble large bubbles, have a jelly-like membrane made of plant and seaweed extracts. According to the company, the membranes decompose after four to six weeks, if not consumed.

As per report published by the London municipal authorities, more than 4,000 plastic bottles had been removed from the River Thames in a one month period last year, demonstrating the scale of the waste problem.

Rodrigo Garcia Gonzalez, the founder of Skipping Rocks Lab, said, "We think Ooho, may not be the solution for all the applications that plastic bottles have, but definitely for short term consumption it could be a solution"

Skipping Rocks, who spent three years developing Ooho, said they produce up to 2,000 balls a day but hope to increase that figure, extend the shelf-life of the product and improve the resistance of the membranes.

The company aims to target, among other consumers, marathon runners, who will be able to dispose of the Oohos mid-race without concerns about the environment. It is also considering encapsulating alcohol for a whole new market.

They have encapsulated alcohol, but they want to perfect it, and then company thinks, hopefully this will be the Jaegerbomb of the future.

The consumption of non-renewable resources for single-use bottles and the amount of waste generated is profoundly unsustainable. The aim of Ooho is to provide the convenience of plastic bottles while limiting the environmental impact.

It seems Ooho could prove to be a revolutionary idea and indeed is a step forward. This edible water blob should replace plastic water bottles. As it's rightly quoted in the 'Wired' "Don't recycle water bottles, eat them instead." 

Where can you find Ooho?

At the moment Ooho is mostly being sold at events, while the company gets it's fully-automated production machine up and running. They have done events in London, San Francisco and Boston, including private functions, conferences, festivals and even the odd pop-up of their own! They can supply these balls if anyone is interested in having Ooho for their events.

Source:

http://skippingrockslab.com

London Municipal authorities

Yahoo news

Business Insider

https://in.news.yahoo.com/uk-based-start-hopes-cut-plastic-waste-innovative-171455727.html