wikicells - sustainability technology

The ultimate in low waste food packaging?

ByLeigh Baker

Here’s a great example of the Regenerative Business Principle #2  “There are no wastes”  combined with Principle #7 “Think small, local and smart”.

Harvard professor Dr. David Edward is developing an edible packaging technology he calls a WikiCell.  Imagine your single serve yoghurt packaged in a soft foam  membrane of raspberry sauce.  The yoghurt is packaged inside its sauce – particles of the sauce are connected by electrostatic charges to each other and to a small amount of natural polymer.  The outer surface would be washable (like a piece of fruit).  You eat the lot, so there’s NO packaging waste.

wikicellsThe professor has constructed a range of prototype products using his WikiCells and some of them are available through his Paris storefront . Other examples include gazpacho inside a tomato-basil membrane and orange membrane containing orange juice..

Ultimately, Professor Edward  hopes to design a WikiCell production machine to be sold to restaurants, companies, and even villages in developing countries that want to manufacture their own products and ditch traditional packaging.   So not only are we talking zero waste, we’re talking about a localised implementation.

Read more about this exciting new approach in the online article “In The Future, You Will Eat Your Food Packaging, And It Will Be Delicious” at http://www.fastcoexist.com/1679388/in-the-future-you-will-eat-your-food-packaging-and-it-will-be-delicious .

Want to know more about Regenerative Business principles?

Find out more about the straightforward principles of sustainability for fun and profit in “The Deep Green Profit Handbook“, available in PDF or paperback  from www.deepgreenprofit.com .

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