Innovative ‘Ooho Balls’ could help reduce mountains of plastic waste

Ooho
Ooho balls: The innovative little water containers could help reduce the vast amounts of plastic that are thrown away every day. They would be particularly welcome in the Philippines, which is currently the third largest contributor to global plastic pollution in the world’s oceans.

Ooho balls: A UK firm has come up with a novel idea to help tackle the global scourge of plastic waste pollution.

Skipping Rocks Lab has launched ‘Ooho Balls’ which are edible and biodegradable spheres filled with water.

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The invention could help to reduce the vast mountains of plastic water bottles that are thrown away every day.

The Philippines has been ranked the third biggest source of plastic leaking into oceans. The country generates 2.7 million metric tons of plastic waste each year. Of this, 20 per cent, or 521,000 tons, ends up in the sea.

The Ooho balls hope to change this by enclosing drinking water in a jelly-like membrane made of plant and seaweed extracts.

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“We think Ooho may not be the solution for all the applications that plastic bottles have, but definitely for short term consumption it could be a solution,” Rodrigo Garcia Gonzalez, the founder of Skipping Rocks Lab, told Reuters.

In a trial near London Bridge this week, the innovative balls drew a mixture of surprise, amusement and delight among those who sampled them.

The startup company spent three years developing Ooho, and now produce up to 2,000 balls a day. They hope to vastly increase that figure, while extending the shelf-life of the product and improving the resistance of the membranes.

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The company is now experimenting with products other than water. Company spokeswoman Lise Honsinger said: “People see these small round bubbles and they just think ‘shots’. So that’s definitely something we’re looking at.

“We have encapsulated alcohol, we want to perfect it, and then hopefully this will be the Jaegerbomb of the future.”

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