A WATER BOTTLE YOU CAN ACTUALLY DRINK AND EAT

വെള്ളം കുടിക്കാം കുപ്പി കഴിക്കാം

            ലോകമെങ്ങും പ്ലാസ്റ്റിക് മാലിന്യങ്ങള്‍ സൃഷ്ടിക്കുന്നതില്‍ വെള്ളക്കുപ്പികള്‍ക്ക് വലിയ പങ്കുണ്ട്. കുപ്പിക്കുള്ളിലെ ഒന്നോ രണ്ടോ ലിറ്റര്‍ കുടിവെള്ളം തീര്‍ന്നാല്‍ മിക്കവരും ചെയ്യുക ആ പ്ലാസ്റ്റിക്ക് കുപ്പി ഉപേക്ഷിക്കുകയാണ്. അങ്ങനെയാണ് ഭൂമിയിലെ മനുഷ്യരടക്കമുള്ള ജീവജാലങ്ങള്‍ക്കും പരിസ്ഥിതിക്കുതന്നെയും വെള്ളക്കുപ്പികള്‍് വലിയൊരു ഭീഷണിയാകുന്നത്. 

              ഈ പ്രശ്‌നം പുഷ്പം പോലെ പരിഹരിക്കാനുള്ള വിദ്യയാണ് ലണ്ടനിലെ റോയല്‍ കോളേജ് ഓഫ് ആര്‍ട്ട് ബിരുദധാരികളായ റോഡ്രിഗോ ഗാര്‍ഷ്യ, പിയറി പാസ്ലിയര്‍, ഗില്ലോം കൗച്ച് എന്നീ യുവാക്കള്‍ കണ്ടെത്തിയത്. കുടിവെള്ളത്തെ വേണമെങ്കില്‍ കടിച്ചുതിന്നാവുന്ന നേര്‍ത്ത പാടയില്‍ ആവരണം ചെയ്യുക. ഇങ്ങനെയുള്ള വെള്ളപ്പാടകള്‍ ഉത്പാദിക്കാന്‍ ബില്യണ്‍ ഡോളര്‍ നിക്ഷേപം വേണ്ട ഫാക്ടറികളൊന്നും വേണ്ട, പണ്ടൊക്കെ നമ്മള്‍ ഇലവാട്ടി ചോറ് പൊതിഞ്ഞിരുന്നത് പോലെ വെള്ളപ്പാടയും നമുക്ക് വീട്ടില്‍ ഉണ്ടാക്കാം. കൂടുതല്‍ അറിയാന്‍ സ്മിഥ്‌സോണിയന്‍ മാഗസിനില്‍ വന്ന ഈ വാര്‍ത്ത വായിക്കുക.

Here's A Water Bottle You Can Actually Eat

A simple culinary technique may go a long way toward ridding the world of excess plastic waste.

By Tuan C. Nguyen

SMITHSONIAN.COM 
APRIL 24, 2014

Two years ago, design student Rodrigo García González made a name for himself when he invented "Hop!," a suitcase prototype that conveniently follows its owner.His latest idea, the edible "Ooho" water bottle, is simpler on the surface but goes after one of the world's most troubling environmental threats: plastic pollution (a problem much more serious than lost luggage).  In an ideal world, Ooho would replace the 50 billion plastic bottles that Americans consume each year. At last count, about 1.5 million barrels of crude oil are tapped annually to manufacture plastic bottles, according to a 2007 resolution by the U.S. Conference of Mayors. After they're thrown away, these containers often end up polluting the ocean, where there are roughly over 46,000 pieces of floating plastic trash for every square mile, according to a report by the United Nations.  Instead of creating a bottle and then filling it with water, González, along with fellow Imperial College London students Pierre Paslier and Guillaume Couche, used a process that allows the bottle to take shape as it coalesces around the liquid. González and his team first took a frozen ball of water and dipped it into a calcium chloride solution, which formed a gelatinous layer. Then, the ball soaked in another solution made from brown algae extract, which encapsulated the ice in a second squishy membrane to reinforce the structure. Keeping the water in the algae solution for long periods of time allows the mold to become thicker and stronger.

"The main point in manipulating the water as solid ice during the encapsulation is to make it possible to get bigger spheres and allow the calcium and algae to stay exclusively in the membrane," González says.The method is adapted from a culinary technique known as spherification. Pioneered in the 1950s by Unilever and popularized by legendary Spanish chef Ferran Adrià, the process has since been used to whip up gastronomic delights such as fake caviar and the juice-filled pearls often added to bubble tea drinks.But no one had thought to apply it to encase large amounts of water. González's team has since gone through thousands of prototypes, testing them in Spain, Italy and Britain. Last summer, the designers tested a few versions of the product on the streets of Spain for a local television program. 

What do the bottles taste like? Not much, González says, though "the jelly texture around [the bottles] is something we are not used to ... yet.""Not all of the reactions were positive," González says. "Some people say that [the bottles] are like breast implants or jellyfish."Even with the Ooho's fortified layers, González describes the container's strength as comparable to the skin found on fruit.

"This is a problem we're trying to address with a double container," he says. "The idea is that we can pack several individual edible Oohos into a bigger Ooho container [to make] a thicker and more resistant membrane."Other challenges include figuring out how to make the bottle re-sealable while keeping the "tasteless" skin sanitary enough for consumers to eat.  Yogurt maker Stonyfield recently rolled out an entire line of yogurt products wrapped in a flavored coating called Wikipearls, made from a mix of natural food particles, which are now available at select Whole Foods locations throughout Massachusetts.  The edible balls of yogurt are sold with the protection of a sealed plastic bag; how exactly the Ooho would be packaged on shelves is something developers will determine when the product is rolled out to consumers.

"There's still a lot things with the engineering of the membrane that we need to improve," González says.  González says a few food and beverage companies have reached out to him to discuss collaborating on the technology further. In the meantime, the project is moving forward under a creative commons license, which means the recipe for Ooho water bottles will be made available online, and soon, if you have two hours and two cents to spare, you could make a bottle in your own kitchen.

Prof. John Kurakar