Environmentally Friendly Edible Water Pods

Overview

This project in its present form is the result of extensive research about the effects of using plastic water bottles and using spherification to hold in water. The initial idea was to find an affordable and eco-friendly alternative to plastic water bottles. A group of 11 people ranging from 13-50 years old was used as test subjects to eat the water pods. Results were determined by both the cost to make an individual pod and the group’s judgment. The price to make a single water pod (2 oz.) was $0.03 while the price to manufacture a single water bottle is approximately $0.03. To eliminate the fear of judgment from the student, the group took an anonymous survey asking how they felt about the water pods. The survey recorded that 81.9% (9/11) of the group would like to continue eating water pods, 9.1% (1/11) would not continue to eat water pods, and 9.1% (1/11) would continue to eat water pods but preferred bottled water. The contributions of this project are twofold. First, the price to manufacture a single water pod compared to a single plastic water bottle is the same, but it’s $0.90 cheaper to make 20 oz. of water pods than it is to buy the average 20 oz. water bottle at retail price ($1.50). Secondly, the pods were shown to be more favored than bottled water and don’t require any disposal of any kind.

Competition history

• ISEF 2021 Chemistry · Entry CHEM037

Resources

• ISEF abstract page ↗

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