Problem:
With Idea 15, the following problem has already been discussed: the waste produced by plastic water bottles that are not being recycled. Connected to this problem is the dilemma that bottling companies, or companies that sell water in general, are facing in always having to find new ways to make their product stand out from the competition. And although in the end water is water, and how much power the actual packaging, the bottle, has on the buying habits of the consumers is still questionable, the question of how a plastic water bottle can be as different as possible, crush the competition and solve the problem of plastic waste simultaneously, still remains.
Solution:
A
few companies are working these days on a biodegradable new material that will possibly replace plastic in the near future. However, till this material becomes marketable another approach might lead to an immediate solution. Although we might not be able to change the fact that companies are using plastic as their main packaging material due its low-cost character, what we can change possibly is how many times people use a plastic water bottle before throwing it away. The problem with plastic is that people associate it with trash instead of with a reusable material. Thus, the questions becomes one of how we can turn a plastic water bottle into something that offers added value once one drank all the water. One way of doing that is by designing a water bottle that is flexibly expandable. The idea of expandable bottles is not new, but has not been adapted to the bottling industry yet, and might offer differentiation through a first mover advantage in case the implementation occurs quickly and efficiently. The added value would be one of flexibility of volume in a physical sense (fits in every bag) as well as a liquid one (how much water/other drinks one carries around).
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