Edible water bubble is an alternative to replace plastic bottles

It was a 12-year-old girl who, while visiting the beaches of Southern California in the United States, decided to take the problem of plastic pollution into her own hands. The young American Madison Checketts realized, while on vacation with her family , the amount of plastic bottles discarded incorrectly and the danger they could pose to the environment. After studying and developing the project with his school since October 2021, Checketts presented at the Eagle Mountain School Science Fair in Utah, USA, an edible gelatinous water bottle, which contains about three-quarters of a glass of water and costs about US$1.20 to produce (about R$6.11).

Called Eco-Hero, the creation is a gelatinous membrane that can be consumed or disposed of properly after the water inside it has been consumed. For the project, Checketts won first place in the science fair and advanced to a national competition. as well as being a finalist in the 2022 Broadcom Masters Competition, the nation's premier science, technology, engineering and mathematics competition for high school students.

Dangers of plastic

Even with several initiatives for recycling and conscious disposal of plastic, there is still a lot of work to be done: for example, in the US, Americans consume more than 30 billion plastic water bottles annually . After being thrown away, the bottles usually end up in in the ocean, where more than 5.25 trillion pieces of plastic waste circulate. This puts the oceans and marine species at risk, which often ingest the material. In addition, depending on the environmental conditions and the material, plastics can also release toxic chemicals and contaminants into the ocean.

Other sustainable initiatives

Ooho is the name of another edible water bottle created by former Imperial College London design students. Developed in 2014 by Rodrigo García González , Pierre Paslier and Guillaume Couche , the bottle uses the reverse spherification method, similar to Checketts, in its creation. Made from algae and calcium chloride at a very low cost (US$ 0.2), the product is cheaper than plastic, generates five times less _CO2 and uses nine times less energy than traditional ones PET bottles. Ooho's design and concept have won numerous awards and its spheres have been used at numerous events. Information: Galileo.