Eco-friendly water bottles look to solve landfill crisis

On April 22 people around the world will recognize Earth Day. In 1969, a massive oil spill in Santa Barbara, Calif., left a seemingly permanent mark on the earth and its health. The following year, Sen. Gaylord Nelson created Earth Day in hopes to educate the public and launch the environmental activism we see today.

Ways in which to keep the earth clean seem simple: riding a bike, recycling, turning lights off. But a new tech company called Skipping Rocks Lab is inventing a new way to go green.

Plastic water bottles fill up the earth’s landfills. In fact, it is estimated that 38 billion water bottles end up in landfills each year.

Skippin Rocks lab created a new product called Ooho, a replacement for traditional plastic water bottles.

Looking at it, Ooho seems to simply be a bubble of water. And that’s pretty accurate. Ooho is  a “blob” of water, sealed in a clear, tasteless seaweed casing. The water is held tightly in this casing, forming a ball of water that easily changes shapes.

Users can simply cut or peel the casing and drink the water inside. Since the seaweed is biodegradable, throwing away the casing is guilt and damage free.

Yet, the more interesting way of consuming your recommended amount of water is simply by ingesting the entire thing. The seaweed casing is edible and nutritionless.

The downside to Ohoo is, of course, that the product only contains a gulp of water, as opposed to a bottle that holds much more.

It’s true that Ohoo may not serve as a solution to the problem, but it’s exciting to see that tech companies and businesses are starting to take the earth’s health into consideration.

Solving the plastic water bottle crisis is no easy task. But Skipping Rocks is starting the race to a solution, and maybe other companies will join in the fun.