Elk's
Basic information
Project Title
Full project title
Category
Project Description
The design solution is based on selling soft drinks without water, which is the ingredient that represents more than 90% of the solution and that favors single-use packagings. In a society where drinking tap water is available to everyone, you can imagine to experience a new drinking model where people can convert that water into a drink at any time through small tabs in their own personal reusable bottle.The system operate on the entire life cycle of soft drinks, eliminating disposable plastic.
Project Region
EU Programme or fund
Description of the project
Summary
Elk's is a new consumption model for soft drinks. The concept is about selling beverages in solid format, without water, which is the ingredient that represents more than 90% of the solution and that favors single-use packagings. Although soft drinks are generically liquid, in a society where tap water is available to everyone at any time, you can imagine to experience a new drinking model, where people can convert that water into a drink everywhere through small tabs in their own personal bottle which eliminates the need for different packaging for each dose. The solid format has the advantage of being pocketable in multiple doses, eliminating single-use packagings.
The Elk’s system consists of three elements: an aluminium tube packaging, a reusable bottle and a vending machine that dispense free water and couples of tabs. The elements interact with the deposit & reward mechanism: when the user buys a pack of tabs, he pays a small supplement that he can get back by delivering the empty pack to one of the vending machines.
Each packaging contains 20 tabs, to be dissolved in 250 ml of water each. Then every packaging can replace 10 plastic bottles of 500 ml, with environmental benefits on the amount of material, weight and volume used.
The solid format is designed to be applied to well-established beverage brands but also to new brands, with the aim of creating a whole new solid beverage market.
Key objectives for sustainability
The project deal with the problem of single-use plastic pollution, or the harmful effect that all those polymeric products with a duration of use ranging from a few minutes to a few hours cause on the environment. They take several hundreds of years to degrade naturally and are generally not recyclable without difficulties caused by the loss of mechanical properties or by economic unsustainability. The production and consumption of disposable plastic increases dramatically every year around the world and continues to damage animal species and ecosystems, threatening the existence of mankind.
The system operate on the entire life cycle of soft drinks, eliminating disposable plastic and minimizing waste.
The goal would be to convert more and more established brands into the solid format, in order to drastically reduce the environmental impact of the current soft drink sector. In addition to this, it is hoped for the diffusion of exclusively solid new drink brands.
Increasingly stringent regulations on plastic packaging will force corporations to change their business models. Systems like Elk's are a viable alternative, and will be increasingly considered in the near future.
Key objectives for aesthetics and quality
The progressive replacement of disposable products with reusable ones will lead to the re-evaluation of the aesthetics of the packaging, which will have a longer life.
Products such as reusable bottles become part of the user's everyday life and therefore must represent him.
Elk's tackles this theme with a visual identity aimed at the target of millennials and generation Z (that group of people who will use reusable products the most) and with the possibility of customization, through the tastes and functionalities of solid drinks, the choice of color of metal bottles and the possibility to engrave a short personal sentence on them.
In the future you can think about progressively adding more drinks with as many functions and graphic styles.
Key objectives for inclusion
Single-use plastic pollution affects the lives of everyone, but especially those of developing countries, to which millions of tons of plastic waste are sold or sent every year from the West, causing exploitation of labor and environmental disasters. There are villages where the inhabitants live in close contact with piles of plastic waste and fires, which cause health problems especially to the respiratory system.
Reducing the amount of plastic waste exported and finding alternative consumption systems are a duty for the developed world, which should contribute to global growth without harming the health of the poorest.
The adoption of Elk's system in the West would decrease the amount of plastic waste generated (and therefore exported) while the adoption of Elk's in poorer countries, together with an effective commitment to ensure safe water for all, could improve many lives.
From another point of view, Elk's is aimed at young people and therefore has a responsibility. Its brand identity does not use toxic stereotypes and does not promote an unattainable lifestyle.
Innovative character
Innovation is about changing the rules in a market that has always worked the same way.
Removing water from packaged products is a possible option and could have incredible effects on the human impact on the planet.
