Edible, gelatinous blob aims to be the new plastic bottle

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In London, start-up Skipping Rocks Lab has developed a gelatinous, edible, and tasteless packaging from calcium chloride and brown algae extract that it says could be a replace plastic water bottles.

Dubbed Ooho, the package includes a thin outer layer to keep the inner, edible layer clean. If the consumer does not want to eat the packaging, it can be broken down in a home compost pile within weeks—unlike other compostable beverage packaging materials that require industrial composters. Although the material is tasteless, flavors can be added.

“Where we see a lot of potential for Ooho is outdoor events—festivals, marathons, places where basically there are a lot of people consuming packaging over a very short amount of time,” company founder Pierre Paslier tells Fast Company.

The business model envisions the water being packaged at the point of sale, eliminating the need to truck bottled water. “If you think of a coffee machine in the cafe that makes the coffee just before you drink it, we’re working on something that would be about that size,” Paslier adds. Portions will likely be small, given the fact that Ooho is not resealable.

Skipping Rocks Lab has recently launched a crowd-funding campaign for raise the capital needed to finalize the manufacturing concept and develop a second product.