360Degree Paper Bottle

How is it better than a paper cup? Why not make a slightly stronger paper lid?

This is my point. Paper cups are wax coated which is not the best for recycling.

it would need to be air tight, impermeable, to ensure food freshness, otherwise gas exchange between permeable membrane - paper - would destroy the contents.

How I would make this:

prefill extra light, thin biodegradable plastic film pouches.
continuous pulp feed, like plastic extrusion, into a continuous die.
filled pouches placed into pulp filled cavities.
more pulp extruded on top.
fed into continuous die, closed, heat set.
cut, stacked, etc.

this process could be done at extreme speeds, as required for economies in the fresh packaged food industry.

[quote=“pier”]it would need to be air tight, impermeable, to ensure food freshness, otherwise gas exchange between permeable membrane - paper - would destroy the contents.

How I would make this:

prefill extra light, thin biodegradable plastic film pouches.
continuous pulp feed, like plastic extrusion, into a continuous die.
filled pouches placed into pulp filled cavities.
more pulp extruded on top.
fed into continuous die, closed, heat set.
cut, stacked, etc.

this process could be done at extreme speeds, as required for economies in the fresh packaged food industry.[/quote]

This would have to be explored because no molded pulp packaging is done this way. Molded pulp is done through filling a mold with pulp “paste” compressing it and then heating it. It is kind of like thermoforming paper. Its not cheap and generally not the most attractive either.

I like the idea of the biodegradable pouch.
WalMart’s requirement for the shelf-life of bottled water is 1 year - so that would be the goal to shoot for.

PackageID - Couldn’t agree more. Molded pulp looks great when it’s rendered however out of the tool blemishes such as ragged edges, inconsistencies, - in particular in the flat flange would likely be a bit of an issue. Large flat areas that don’t have any rib structure can often get a bit of a warp to them. On this product the warp could probably be compensated for by putting a rib around the entire end of the package rather than keeping it flat. The toolmaker would like this also as it makes it easier to get the final part out of the tool.

Coloring the pulp is also expensive. In order to run a batch of color the machine must be first purged of the existing pulp, cleaned, and then the colored pulp introduced. Once this color is done… the purging and cleaning starts again.

Well… I’m not sure if we’re going to see one of these in the store very soon - but at least it has solicited some discussion…

van_ID,

I totally agree with you and I feel the same kind of frustration. To propose new concepts is great, that is how innovation is done, but to present it as something that is finished and resolved when it is obvious, it isn’t, is irritating. We are dealing with ID here, not SciFi.

I always get suspicious when the only images on the website are renderings. They say, they did the prototyping. Why are we not seeing any prototypes? Even better, in action?

mh…

This is very suprising to me because I have actually worked with these guys on projects in the past back when they were 180 design and agian when 180 merged with Laga. BrandImage has since taken over these two so it sounds to me that they may be getting to big for themselves.

I have to admit - the first time I walked into my local Home Depot and saw the packaging and ID for the Black and Decker VPX line - I was pretty impressed. I’m not sure if they did the ID but the packaging is shown on their website.

See:

http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://ecodesign.lboro.ac.uk/files/imagemanagermodule/%40random433933d1193e8/cardboard_bottle.jpg&imgrefurl=http://ecodesign.lboro.ac.uk/index.php%3Fsection%3D270&usg=__BkjnBMUa390-twNBvpqet3FPbI4=&h=260&w=250&sz=22&hl=en&start=6&um=1&tbnid=iYI3pfFy8Vu_DM:&tbnh=112&tbnw=108&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dcardboard%2Bmilk%2Bcarton%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26client%3Dfirefox-a%26rls%3Dorg.mozilla:en-US:official%26sa%3DN

See:

http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.alternativeconsumer.com/wp-content/uploads/Ross/ROSS_FALL_07/greenbottle1.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.alternativeconsumer.com/2008/01/07/greenbottle-the-greener-milk-carton/&usg=__YwiYd1XuVpHUA6jDAL_SZIRL1EY=&h=272&w=274&sz=74&hl=en&start=20&um=1&tbnid=0I0bcNmnYiFxeM:&tbnh=112&tbnw=113&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dcardboard%2Bmilk%2Bcarton%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26client%3Dfirefox-a%26rls%3Dorg.mozilla:en-US:official%26sa%3DN

But you know, if you take into consideration the amount of energy required to manufacture bio-degradable resins for a thin-film liner, transport the resin to a converter (processor), the energy required to process the film into a container, the manufacture of materials to then manufacture a suitable exterior container to protect the thin-film bag, then transport the “recycled” materials to a “recycling center”, and consequently transport the recycled materials back to someone to reprocess it …

Do you think, maybe, that after all is said and done, the old glass, washable, refillable bottle is the most economic, and ecologic. Multiple use, cheap, readily available raw materials, impermeable, and even if it isn’t recycled it is inert and harms nothing. As far a the wash cycle is concerned I’m sure that there must now be a process which would be more “water-friendly” than the old way of washing and flushing water down the drain. Christ, the Skylab recycles sweat and urine into drinking water…

PackageID nails it:

I think one of our biggest issues with this topic is more about education and awareness. We as humans need to be told and reminded what to do. This means that if there is a cool paper bottle that encourages people to recycle it or if possible reuse it then we will. Same with a plastic bottle. > If we quit designing things to be disposable and start encouraging > reusability > and recycling then that is the way to change things.

PackageID; Please pardon my artistic graphic license

No problem Lmo. Thanks for the props. This is an issue I struggle with everyday as a package designer.

This reminds me of something. The tetrapak. Paper packaging for liquid is definitely not new. I would be interested to find out why the tetrapak isn’t successful in the states as compared to Asia. The tetrapak isn’t really a recycle friendly product either. Maybe there’s a way to combine the positive attributes of both packaging designs.

“Sippy” drinks (boxes and bags), chicken and beef broth, coffee creamer (at a restaurant), come to mind here in the States.

I would be interested to find out why the tetrapak isn’t successful in the states as compared to Asia.

The recycling process seems to be the big issue. Containers left for recycle must be segregated in a separate curbside box because the aluminum/plastic film used tends to clog up “regular” paper pulping equipment. The actual recycling process must happen at a tetrapak oriented facility which has the equipment capable of separating the plastic and aluminum film from each other and the paper; this would mean additional transportation costs, and probably deters folks from even being bothered with the effort.

The recycle rate of TP containers in the UK has been only about 4% of the 2 BILLION TP containers consumed annually (ref 1) mostly attributed to inaccessibility of TP recycling centers. At one point consumers in the UK wishing to recycle were required to package empties, and ship them to a recycler at their own expense. Then, the only TP recycler in the UK closed in 2006 due to rising energy costs. Containers had to be shipped to Norway for recycling … there’s sustainability for you. There are currently several processors in the UK.

While TetraPak containers are well accepted in Asia (29% of the world market!), the recycle rate is currently low. And if you consider the energy/transportation requirements to recycle it is easy to understand why the rate is low. Tetra Pak China says in its first Environment Report that it has successfully recycled more than 4900 tons of waste, which are equivalent to 500 million Tetra Pak packages. With Chinese annual production expanding to 16 BILLION cartons (ref 2) they’re going to have to do better than that. A lot better.

Unexpectedly (or not, given the apparent world view on “counterfeiting”), plagiarism of the Tetrapak design, resulting in containers that do not conform to TP material schedule, seems to be an issue with regard to the recycling process as well.

ref. 1

ref.2
http://ezinearticles.com/?Why-is-Tetra-Pak-Recycling-Not-Happening?&id=648695

TetraPak in the UK

TetraPak is investing heavily in getting people to recycle their containers … which of course, it should be.
http://www.tetrapakrecycling.co.uk/

TetraPak recycling process description
http://www.environmental-expert.com/Files\0\articles\2268\tetrapak.pdf

Wow that was very informative. I don’t think we as IDers really think about Pkg and what is going on behind the scenes. We tent to think that if it is paper than we can recycle it. This really is not the case. Also I have always call Pkg Design the bastardized child of ID. We tend to think of all the great products that we design and how to keep them out of a landfill but when it comes down to it, everything is packaged in some way and that almost always get thrown away immediately. We never want to admit if it is ID or is it graphic design. Is it something that should be our job or is it something that should be left up to marketing? Packaging contributes a lot to our waste stream and is a part of the product process that is needed but is also something that should be put in the product development process. This is an issue I think all of us should think about just a bit more and try to get a bit more education on.

More information on this paper water bottle:

http://www.brand-image.com/pdf/Brandimage_ResponsibleDesign.pdf

Shppped inverted and there’s a fill portal on the bottom. Its lined with PLA film.

This really sound cool and I hope that one day we will be able to get to this kind of technology. This will take lots of work to get people thinking this way and until they do it this concept will not work.

The first is setting up the recycle streams fro PLA. Right now it cannot be recycled through “normal” recycling streams and currently just ends up in the landfill. This simple fact causes this concept to fail. Also maybe I am just out of the loop, but I have never heard of this paper made of Bamboo, Palm leaves, etc… I do not think that it would be hard to do this just that it would be a specialty paper so it would be expensive which would make the bottle of water expensive, which would cause people to continue to buy the ones in the PET bottles.

Bamboo is the fastest growing plant on earth, 6 or more inches per day, so it is a good sustainable material. Although, the usual complaints arise like nasty chemicals used in its processing, greenhouse gases emitted from shipping it all over the world, etc.

Thanks for the link mgn8.

I’ll give BrandImage credit - they have thought this through more than I initially gave them credit for.

It’s too bad more of the functional details didn’t make it out with the initial renderings. Lesson learned?!

Architorture

It is true that paper does biodegrade faster than plastic but I believe your figure of biodegradation is in well managed landfills.

This is VERY false. The way landfills are made prevent anything from degrading. They put a liners that block out the elements that degrade the garbage. The idea is to lock in all the garbage forever, so they put the liner, and nothing can get in or out.

This does not mean that things cannot decompose before “locked in”. People are now using landfills as an energy source sense they product tons of methane gas. The are being used to power plants and other manufacturing facilities, including their own. This methane gas comes from decomposing garbage. So I am sorry your statement is VERY false.

haha, ya true, but most of the landfills in the country are locked in… but I know in some other countries they are just left open, but either way the best thing is not to throw them away in the first place.