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  Michael Long

  11 years ago

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  Pods are cool, but you're still going to need a plastic bag or covering to keep the water-soluble contains away from stray moisture and humidity.

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  nym

  11 years ago

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  @James Patrick:
  Ahh, I see...okay I misunderstood this.
  Then I have to say, that's a great use of water- & soap-solvable ink.
  
  I usually reuse all sorts of containers from honey, jam or peanutbutter jars to sometimes even glass-bottles.
  And the what's most annoying about that is to peel of the stickers.
  
  And even if you buy cheap products, like a dustpan or a buckett...usually they try to save some cents on the info- and barcode sticker. And this is the stuff that you can't peel off and leaves ugly residues on the product. And over the years they collect all kind of dirt and just look gross. It would be so easy if you could just wash those prints off with water.
  
  But yet again...from a manufacturing point of view printing directly onto the surface is not feasible.
  For something like this usually a transfer layer (plastic) is needed.
  Is this really more eco friendly than having a simple sticker?
  
  

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  glenn

  11 years ago

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  It's great that this dialogue exists and, though not without problems, people are offering up some thoughtful ideas. However lifestyle change can alleviate many of the problems associated with packaging. Shop bulk, demand fresh, support local. Also, it's interesting to note that most of these ideas address branding. Something that really does not effect the function of the product. And, as someone mentioned, manufacturing and fulfillment seem to have been glossed over.

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  James Patrick

  11 years ago

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  @nym The container is the product. There isn't supposed to be food in it when you buy it(I've seen these at Target). They currently come wrapped in plastic or cardboard.

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  James Patrick

  11 years ago

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  Yes! ID done right!

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  Simon Flummox

  11 years ago

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  A lot of physical packaging is really like DRM- designed with the <1% of malicious users in mind. Unfortunately, it doesn't *really* have much impact on them, and is an enormous encumbrance for the rest of us.
  It is difficult to get past the mindset, however. I'm sure there would be a bunch of objections to the water-soluble soap box, for example, on the basis that incidental water contact would ruin the box. Realistically, though, much of our traditional packaging would be ruined by the same incidental water contact.

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  bob

  11 years ago

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  bam! take that quirky

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  Tom Mc

  11 years ago

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  These are interesting from a conceptual point of view but from a cost and manufacturability standpoint they are sorely lacking.
  
  I suggest the inventor of these ideas spend some time in a fulfillment house or a packaging plant and see how all of this comes together. Then take a step back and ask yourself how you can justify all the increased cost and capital investment when all companies (there are a few exceptions) view packaging as a temporary vehicle that should be as low cost as possible?

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  nym

  11 years ago

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  I like it as conceptual work...and I highly like the PODs, but I question the rest.
  
  The first container seems to be nice, but what is the point in having 24 of those durable plastic spaghetti containers at home if you cook spaghetti for your family twice every month.
  At some point you will have enough of those durable and reusable containers and what then? You'll throw them away...
  
  If you would even invest in them in the first place.
  A thin-sheet layer of plastic (no hybrid material) seems more eco-friendly and easier to recycle...to be honest.
  
  I really like the concept of soap-solvable ink.
  The next question is...do we really want this in our water?
  Can the solved ink be easily filtered out?
  
  
  The PODs are great!
  It just makes sense to roll it up.But is it really doable with a dissolvable packaging? nowadays those pods are individually wrapped in plastic/metal. you have to tear that apart and use the PODs.
  Is it enough protection if the product gets handled on it's way of transportation? Is there enough protection? What if it rains while the truck gets loaded? Do the sweaty hands of customers affect the dissolvable wrapping?
  
  
  The trashbags just make sense :)
  And I prefer that nowadays they shifted from rolling them onto a cardboard pipe to just rolling the bags. That works flawless.
  The question is, whether it is really economical to put all the 36 bags through yet another printing press (with different color) just to print the last bag.
  Is the effort you need in engineering to make sure that the last print is really positioned right on the last bag, after endless meters of bags without prints went through the machine, really worth it?
  Or can we just wrap a separate bag around?
  If those question are not answered I would rather stick to a printed piece of paper wrapped around the roll of bags, which can be disposed as recyclable paper.
  
  
  
  
  The Teabags look fancy, but don't tey add way more paper/cardboard to an individual teabag than the existing solution to store a bunch of tea bags with it's small flat in one box?
  Buy loose tea at a local tea shop and let it be filled into a glas jar and use a tea egg for infusion and there will be zero waste.
  
  
  
  Letting the package dissolve in the shower? I assume this takes around 5 min., if you let the water streams directly hit and by that mechanical support the dissolving process. Seems like really bad customer experience...
  I would prefer having maybe an organic sheet of wrapping (corn powder) that I could throw in my food waste bin and there it composts by degrading within weeks.
  
  Or use different colored soap to imprint the name on the soap bars and just wrap it with no-ink plastic foil. 100% recyclable.
  QR-Codes could replace the necessity of having all the ingredients printed on packages.
  One could just easily scan the QR-code in the shop if there is actual interest in the product's ingredients. The item will be stored in your purchase database for later reference. Why not :)

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  Jason Mills

  11 years ago

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  This is a great design topic, and there are some nice solutions here!
  
  I'm curious if you couldn't integrate biodegradable materials into the packaging, which would expand the possibilities of footprint-reducing products you could introduce into the market.
  
  Great to see designers putting innovation to a task that is both needed and meaningful.

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  in the sewer

  11 years ago

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  water soluble... where is all the ink going... in the sewer... so its going somewhere.
  I wonder how much water is required to wash off the packaging ?
  Interesting solution at a time when water is becoming a scarce ressource.
  Why not just composting it ?
  
  Though we have to admit that zero approach is great.

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  Emanster Provolone

  11 years ago

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  These are awesome. Nice work.
  
  My only input is that most of these products normally have fairly simple and relatively low(er) impact paper packaging.
  
  This study would be even better if he had identified the product categories with the most inefficient packaging that had the most environmental impact, and target some of those products.
  
  Very nice work though!

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