More than 60 million plastic bottles end up in landfills around the world every year. Recycling and creative reuse have partially contributed to stem the tide, but the solution is to eliminate waste. This is why solutions such as Soapbottle, a new line of personal care products created by the German designer Jonna Breitenhuber. Products entirely made with reusable soap, both in content and in packaging.
The concept behind Soapbottle emerged as Breitenhuber continued her studies in product design at the Berlin University of the Arts, while working as a cosmetic packaging designer. Frustrated with the waste and pollution involved in the design and development process, Breitenhuber began looking for solid, unpackaged personal care products, but noted that there were few alternatives for liquid products.
Soapbottle, soap everywhere
Seeking to replace the kind of single-use disposable plastic that makes up most of the packaging, the designer began experimenting with different prototypes in her studio. Eventually she came up with a line of brightly colored bottles, each containing 100ml of bubble bath made from natural ingredients. In other words? He transformed the product into packaging. An evolution of a concept that I presented some time ago, with a similar name: Soapack.
Traditional plastic packaging for liquid products can take up to 400 years to degrade. With its minimalist packaging Soapbottle demonstrates that the circular economy can be chic as well as responsible.
A cleaner alternative
Soapbottle is inspired by the food industry in which the products themselves become packaging: imagine an ice cream cone or an edible bread bowl. Likewise, once the liquid content is finished, the empty container can be used as a normal hand soap. The labels are made from recycled paper with natural colors.
So far, Soapbottle has been successful at European design fairs and events: today it seeks a wider audience and proposes itself in a crowdfunding campaign on Kickstarter.
