Edinburgh entrepreneurs launch Crowdfunding for innovative water bottles
Amee Ritchie and Jake Elliott-hook aim to produce the first reusable water bottles from plant material
‘We came up with S’wheat when we began to notice the growing concern for plastic pollution, and we weren’t happy with the current choices for water bottles being plastic, steel and glass, as all of these take thousands of years to biodegrade,” says Jake Elliott-hook. Around 16 million plastic bottles end up in landfill every day in the UK alone, causing havoc with eco-systems,
especially in the ocean. And as the current trend for eco-friendly and non-plastic products grows, Jake and Amee were keen to develop something to help with the plastic problem and shake up what was available on the market.
“The average water bottle user discards their so called ‘reusable’ bottle in less than a month, and this ends up in landfill or the oceans along with the rest of single-use plastics, which defeats the purpose of reusable products.” Jake adds.
Jake and Amee wanted to move away from using plastic bottles not just due to the damage they cause to the environment but also because numerous health studies highlight how plastic leeches into the water it contains.
“We decided to create the S’wheat bottle from plant-based materials, ensuring that it would biodegrade naturally if it ever ended up in landfill or the oceans,” says Jake.
“The S’wheat bottle is not just different from reusable bottles due to its biodegradability but also due to its functionality. We found the main reason consumers threw away there current bottle was because they couldn’t efficiently clean it, leading to a build-up of bacteria creating odours or metallic tasting water. Therefore we engineered the S’wheat bottle to open at either end to allow for easy cleaning, which also reduces water consumption for cleaning by 70 per cent.”
Made from bamboo and wheat straw, the S’wheat bottles will be naturally anti-bacterial and antiodour. Jake and Amee hope to raise £10,000 to fund their first production run of bottles, which will be available in three colours. There are ten reward packages available on the Crowdfunding page, ranging from a “thank you” e-mail for a £10 donation to a S’wheat Duo for a £45 or more donation, in which contributors receive two S’wheat Bottles in the colours of their choice.