可以食用的水容器，替代塑料瓶指日可待

Runners in a half-marathon in London on March 1 might be a little confused at the water stations, where instead of getting water in a plastic cup or bottle, they’ll be handed an edible water-filled pod.

3月1日在倫敦舉行的半程馬拉松比賽上，選手們來到水站后可能會有些困惑，因為水站給他們發(fā)的不是杯裝或瓶裝的水，而是裝了水的可以食用的容器。

The package, which is also compostable, is made from seaweed and plant extracts. You simply bite the corner off and drink.

該包裝是用海藻和植物提取物制成的，而且它也是可以降解的。你只需要咬掉包裝的一角，就可以飲用了。

“What we want to do is have a bulletproof solution—regardless of where it ends up, our packaging will not create negative consequences,” says Pierre-Yves Paslier, cofounder of Notpla, the startup that makes the packaging. “If nature can deal with it if it ends up in the wrong place, that’s the ultimate kind of protection.”

生產(chǎn)這種包裝的是一家初創(chuàng)公司Notpla(替代包裝專家)，該公司聯(lián)合創(chuàng)始人皮埃爾-伊夫·帕索耶表示，“我們想要提供的是一種無懈可擊的方案，也就是說，不論我們的包裝最終到了哪里，它都不會帶來負面影響。如果它最終被丟到了錯誤的場所，大自然也可以把它處理掉，這就是最終的保護措施。”

Paslier, a former packaging engineer at L’Oréal, began working on the concept along with designer Rodrigo Garcia Gonzalez in 2013 while they were studying innovation design engineering at Imperial College London and the Royal College of Art. Seven years later, it’s no longer a student project but a viable business. After raising more than $1 million in a crowdfunding campaign last year, the company has just raised its first VC-backed “seed plus” round of more than $5 million.

帕索耶曾是歐萊雅的包裝工程師。2013年他和設(shè)計師羅德里戈·加西亞·岡薩雷斯一起在倫敦帝國理工學院和皇家藝術(shù)學院學習創(chuàng)新設(shè)計工程，當時他們一起開始研究了這一設(shè)想。7年后，它不再是一個學生提出的項目，而成為一項可行的業(yè)務(wù)。去年該公司在眾籌活動中籌得了100多萬美元，而目前，該公司剛剛完成了由風投公司支持的首輪“種子+”融資，融資金額逾500萬美元。

The designers used a technique from molecular gastronomy to create the package—if you dip a sphere of ice in a mixture of calcium chloride and brown algae extract, an edible membrane forms around the ice, holding everything in place as the ice melts back to room temperature.

設(shè)計師們使用分子美食學中的一種技術(shù)來制作這種包裝——如果你把一個冰球浸入氯化鈣和褐藻提取物中，在冰球的周圍就會形成一種可食用的薄膜，當冰在室溫下融化時，那層薄膜會把一切固定在原位。

A small version of the package is designed to break open inside your mouth. “It’s a bit like a cherry tomato,” says Paslier. “You put it in your cheek and bite on it. It explodes, so it’s quite a surprising experience.”

該公司還設(shè)計了一款小包裝，可以直接放進嘴里咬開。帕索耶表示，“它有點像櫻桃番茄。你把它放進嘴里，然后咬一口，它就會裂開，因此這可以說是很不同尋常的經(jīng)歷了。”

The startup partnered with the Scottish whisky brand Glenlivet last year to make a “glassless cocktail” capsule that customers can imbibe along with whisky. The seaweed coating, which is tasteless, can either be eaten or composted.

去年這家初創(chuàng)公司與蘇格蘭威士忌品牌格蘭威特(Glenlivet)合作，推出了一款“非玻璃包裝的雞尾酒”膠囊，顧客在喝威士忌的時候，可以同時飲用這款雞尾酒。這種海藻制成的包裝是無味的，而且既可以食用，也可以制成堆肥。