Capsule Solution Set to Replace Disposable Toiletry Bottles

The AHA! Team — Mon, 03 Jun 2024 05:13:38 +0000

Abigail Klein Leichman via Israel21c – Adding water to soap or shampoo concentrate to a reusable bottle at the point of usage would cut costs and pollution drastically. Eighty-five percent of the contents of all those plastic bottles of liquid soap, shampoo and detergent we use every day is water. Just 15% is the active ingredient that does the job we bought it to do. If the water could be added where the product is used rather than where the product is made, the package would be much smaller, lighter and cheaper. And that would lead to a cascade of environmental improvements in the manufacture, packaging, transport, storage and disposal of toiletries, cleansers and other water-based household products. The founders of Capsule Minimal have devised a revolutionary 3D-printed smart capsule containing the active ingredients. Insert the capsule into the company’s reusable metal bottle, add tap water, and the toiletry or cleaning product is ready. The two-year-old startup, which was chosen as one of 30 companies representing Israel at the COP28 climate summit in Dubai before the delegation was canceled, is seeking big-brand collaborations to bring its ingenious green solution to market. That’s insane “If you look around your home, most daily-use products are water-based: cosmetics, toiletries, paint, cleaning materials. You need a mediator to deliver active ingredients, and that’s usually water because most active ingredients are water-soluble,” says Ami Krupik, cofounder and chairman of Capsule Minimal. “We all have multiple water taps in our homes and yet we’re bringing water from thousands of miles away where the products were produced,” he says. “That’s insane. Why should you use water brought from one country to wash your hair in another country?” However, it’s not as simple to make a just-add-water shampoo as it is to make lemonade from a can of concentrate. “Most household products cannot be sold as concentrates, because they contain complex materials that must be mixed, heated and mediated in industrial plants to bring them into the water in a way that makes them usable,” Krupik explains. “There are many phases and energy investments involved in the manufacturing process. If you want to bring active ingredients directly to customers, they’d need machinery and a lot of effort. Most people aren’t able or willing to do that. We needed to enable this to happen easily without machinery.” Industrial plant in a bottle Capsule Minimal cofounder and CEO Yael Goethe, a biotechnology engineer and former R&D manager and COO of a leading clean-tech company, hit on the right formula. The technology she invented brings the industrial plant into the bottle in a physical, mechanical and chemical way. You put the active-ingredients capsule in the bottle with water, and the product makes itself, automatically activating phases including heating and mixing. The capsules will be produced in an efficient and green way and sold in a paper wrapper. “The market is very interested in our technology to solve the plastic waste problem — not just because they want to but because they have to,” Goethe tells ISRAEL21c. “There is regulation in Europe and in some parts of the United States that forces them to find a solution. Many potential strategic partners have approached us and we expect to sign collaborations because we want to be massive.” The company is building a proof-of-concept plant in northern Israel and is in talks with potential American and Israeli partners. “We don’t aim for niche products for the environmentally aware consumer,” Krupik emphasizes. “We want everyone — you and me, and our neighbors — to use it instead of the ordinary products we all use today. So we need a collaboration with a big player.” Capsule Minimal has patents and is in the process of obtaining regulatory approval for five categories of toiletries, including a variety of soaps and shampoos. “We chose to focus on the toiletries industry first, and next will be the cleaning industry,” Krupik tells ISRAEL21c. “These huge markets transport water every day in the millions of gallons.” The plastic problem Plastic pollution is at a pandemic level, and it’s not only the oil-based material itself that harms our environment. Millions of disposable plastic bottles are transported every day twice by truck, once empty and once filled with product. The heavier they are, the more fuel the trucks burns to transport them. The filled bottles are shipped by sea and stored in warehouses and finally retail stores, where they take up a lot of space that contributes to the air conditioning load. All of these steps cause greenhouse gas emissions from burning fossil fuels. Finally, when plastic bottles are disposed, they either sit in landfills forever, shed microplastics into the oceans, or get recycled in energy-intensive processes. A recent illustrative case is LEGO’s decision not to make bricks from recycled plastic bottles after projections suggested this material would ultimately leave a larger carbon footprint. In fact, Krupik and Goethe were motivated by their insider knowledge of plastic recycling. They were involved in developing new technologies for the recycling industry that decreased the amount of energy needed by more than 70%. “But the remaining 30% bothered us. We understood that recycling is not the real solution,” says Krupik. “There is always waste from everything we do, but we believe the main solution is reducing waste production.” Their innovation could significantly reduce the billions of toiletry and cleansing product bottles sold and discarded every year. A thousand of their capsules take up just one cubic meter. Holistic solution “It’s a holistic solution based in science,” says Goethe, who recalls being horrified at the sight of trucks dumping tons of landfill waste. “The reusable bottle is also an important part of this story,” she says. “The bottle is very aesthetic and practical. It opens from the bottom, so it’s very easy to clean and refill.” Capsule Minimal got its start at I4Valley Karmiel Incubator for Small Industry, which is supported by corporations such as Keter along with the Israel Innovation Authority. The company also has some private investors and recently opened a seed funding round. The current war, says Goethe, is presenting some challenges, but “we are able to work as normally as possible. We believe in the power of entrepreneurship and sustainability to make a positive impact, even — especially! — in difficult times.” For more information, click here. To read the original article click here.

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NEW Report Reveals That Bottled Water Contains More Toxic Chemicals Than You Can Imagine

AHA Publisher — Tue, 09 Feb 2021 08:00:05 +0000

Damon Hines via NaturalHealth365 – Americans drink more bottled water than any other beverage, including coffee, tea, milk, and soft drinks. According to Statista, in 2019, per capita consumption of bottled water amounted to roughly 43.7 gallons in the United States, up from 16.2 gallons in 1999. Of course, there are many people that say the consumption of water in plastic bottles can put a strain on the environment. But, what might be even harder to swallow is the fact that some popular bottled water brands are bad for your health, too. Consumer Reports tested 47 different brands of bottled water (35 carbonated, 12 carbonated) and found levels of toxic PFAS chemicals (poly and perfluoroalkyl substances) that are above the limit recommended by experts. In addition, a 2019 study published in Frontiers in Chemistry analyzed samples from 259 bottled water brands sold in several countries around the world and found that 93% of them contained microplastic synthetic polymer particles. In other words, the health qualities of bottled water might not be so healthy after all. Popular Bottled Water Brands Contain Shocking Levels of PFAS Prevailing standards and government regulations have not caught up to the toxic threat of PFAS, a group of industrial chemicals that have been linked to liver damage, thyroid disease, pregnancy risks, and other adverse health conditions. As of January 2021, the Environmental Working Group states that 2,337 locations in 49 states are known to have PFAS contamination in their water systems. In pursuit of healthier, purer, safer water, many Americans turn off the tap and reach for bottled water. It appears that bottled water, however, isn’t any cleaner. Consumer Reports found that popular bottled water brands, including products from the Perrier and Poland Springs lines, as well as canned carbonated waters like Bubly and LaCroix, contained concerning levels of PFAS. To learn more about the shocking (and disturbing) history of PFAS, listen to this incredible NaturalHealth365 podcastwith Jonathan Landsman and Robert. A Bilott, an American environmental attorney from Cincinnati, Ohio. Bottled Water Is Cleaner Than Tap Water, Right? Not Really! Bottled water is marketed as though it’s “cleaner” than tap water, but in reality, according to the study in Frontiers in Chemistry, bottled water has twice as much plastic in it as tap water. According to researchers, the majority of the microplastics lurking in bottled water are introduced in the industrial bottling process. Nylon, polyethylene terephthalate, and polypropylene, which are used to make bottle caps, are the plastic debris most commonly found. The study published in Frontiers of Chemistry tested 11 bottled water brands and found that the average brand contained 325 microplastic particles per liter of bottled water. Nestle Pure Life had the largest concentration of plastic particles, containing more than 10,000 microplastics per liter. Replace Your Bottled Water With These Safer Alternatives There are countless reasons to give up your plastic water bottle habit. PFAS and microplastics are just another toxic strand in a tangled web of health, economics, and environmental crisis. So what can you do? Buy a good water filter or home filtration system Carry your to-go water in an insulated stainless steel or glass bottle instead of plastic Advocate for clean, pure, safe water and help to support stricter PFAS and microplastic regulations By the way, there is one company that has tested “clean” for its plastic bottled spring water and that’s Tourmaline Spring. And, no, we at NaturalHealth365 do not earn a dime for talking about this brand. We just thought you might want to know. Sources for this article include: Consumerreports.org Livescience.com Time.com To read the original article click here. For more articles from NaturalHealth365 click here.

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Capsule Solution Set to Replace Disposable Toiletry Bottles

NEW Report Reveals That Bottled Water Contains More Toxic Chemicals Than You Can Imagine