Core77

So if it requires the support of the other bottles in the box to stop it collapsing, what happens when it's free standing and only half full, or the lids off?
Also, if it collapses so easily wouldn't that prevent people reusing the bottle?
Other then that, I like it.

Back in the early '90s I designed packaging for Procter & Gamble, and similar packaging concepts embodying the collapsible design as well as "stackability" were submitted. Very nice presentation.

It wouldn't have to be THAT collapsible, as Lucy suggests. Also, the pressure from the liquid inside will keep it strong. Just like a can of soda - you can stand on it when its full and unopened, but not when you let the internal pressure out. So I don't think you would even need this bottle to be surrounded to make it stackable. Just filling it with pressure would work

Hi there,

- Coke is a carbonated beverage making a 'square' bottle highly unlikely to stay 'square' it would naturally bloat.

- the current bottle bottom has been engineered to reduce excess agitation of the carbonated liquid, smooth lines that stop it getting 'angry' square bottles make coke angry.

industrial design is the balance of ideas and reality, at least it used to be.
this is a neat idea but very poorly researched.

Remember, during shipping the bottle is fluid filled - this will add to the structural integrity of the bottle preventing it from being crushed during shipping.
When shipping the bottle before being filled I would guess that the bottle is light enough so that others stacked on top won't cause it to compress. This would be a challenge, but far from impossible. I think the idea is quite brilliant.

I would be more concerned about it not maintaining it's square shape. Inside a coke bottle it can (under the right circumstances) reach pressure upwards of 150psi (nominally though about 45psi). I wonder if he looked at that component at all.

That being said it's a very interesting concept.

Unfortunatly, CSD's have such high internal pressure, this square bottle would quickly turn in to a round bottle after it was filled and capped. It works well for non CSD's (i.e. Fiji Water), but not here.

I like the thought, though. Keep on innovating!

Both are slightly wrong.

This is a carbonated soda...so the internal pressure is going to keep the bottle from collapsing in shipping, less the bottles surrounding it.

Even with a non carbonated beverage the cap keeps the airspace locked and un-compressible.

I must be in a stable, because I am surrounded by nay sayers.

Its made out of plastic, not tissue paper.

The bottom line is, this bottle wont collapse like an accordion. Anyone studied origami knows that in order to construct something foldable, the geometrical shape has to possess acute angles. Accordion relies on rib and fabric, where as for Chinese laterns, finefolds instead of fabric.

First year students really need get their hands dirty and start making models, instead of merely rending their wishful thinkings.

these bottles are meant to recycled, not re-used.

Big problem in the pressure inside the bottle. The square shape in any easily-crushable plastic would balloon out pretty quickly.

That's why the bottles we have today are round.

It's a great looking design and some of the features are rather interesting. I just had one thought, does it (or rather, will it) work in existing vending machines? I'm guessing this would be less of a question in vertically loaded machines than horizontal.

The mere fact that it is sealed, even if it only contained air, reduces the compressibility greatly.

Evian use bottles that can compact like that, they are equally as strong as other bottles so i don't know why that would be a problem.

But yea this is an amazing design i would love to use it.

often with re-designs for big corporation packaging like coke it is obvious it would never work because it would up costs and they loose advertising space but this design has benefits all round for the company

FYI, The bottle isn't going to collapse if the lid is on tight. The internal pressure from bottling would keep that from happening. Try squeezing an existing bottle before you open it. You'll notice that it pretty solid. Obviously, the inability to expand due to bottles being beside it will be supportive as well but I doub't that is the significant part of that equation.

As for Lucy's comment, I would recommend you look at existing bottles that are designed to collapse. They are made out of plastic that is strong enough to hold its shape. The ribs essentially act as a curve to control the collapsing direction and make it efficiently collapse.

Soda is carbonated, so there's positive pressure inside the bottle. It won't collapse, because of the compressive strength of the gas, just like a rubber bike tire. However, a square vessel just can't contain pressure like a circular one, the sides will be forced to bulge out. If the walls are thick enough to contain the pressure in the bottle without deforming, then they would need to be much thicker than the ones in a current Coke bottle, so the advantage in using less plastic is gone. There's a reason why pressure vessels don't have square corners, they're failure points. Maybe a hexagonal bottle with many of the same features would work, as regular hexes tessellate the plane without gaps, but the bulging sides issue is still there.

The Gold Rush of Eco Design

It wouldn't collapse so easily, Lucy. What the post author means is "it would collapse if there were ten or fifteen full bottles on top of it".

Of course, being half full I kind of understand it is not going to be under another bottle, much less fifteen of them.

Good concept, but some ideas are not possible in real world.
Plant-based plastic has a very low gas barrier - not possible to hold carbon dioxide, may be you should use rPET instead. And rectangular shape can't withstand internal pressure as good as circular, please think more why all the bottles are circular.

Have you not ever squeezed a 2-liter coke bottle before opening it? The pressurization would keep it plenty sturdy. As long as you weren't stacking a bunch of "flat" bottles of coke, then there shouldn't be a problem.

My concern is a round bottle/can is round because a round container will deal with pressure better than any other shape. We can now make bottles from thinner plastics because of the shape. How much thicker will a square container need to be to handle the same amount of pressure as gracefully as a round one? And is that added material and therefore weight still offset enough by the more efficient packing to still reduce shipping costs? Also I saw a study a while ago (can't remember source) that said that only about 20% of recyclable bottles are recycled. So the pragmatist in me says to make them from as little material as possible since 80% will end up in a landfill anyway. Just some comments. I really hope you can rebut my criticisms, because I think this could be not only a cool-looking new trend, but I'm always all for anything that helps the environment.
-Tom

Shipping is not the only aspect of this that involves energy. The manufacturing of square bottles is a lot more expensive and energy intensive. Companies are doing everything they can to shave cost off their logistics and manufacturing processes. They would have done this a long time ago if it would have saved money.

Impractical. It's called carbonation folks. The drink creates its own pressure, so the sides would bow out unless they were unusually thick, increasing cost and making the collapsible part useless.

This is directed to Andrew Kim:

There is a reason bottles for carbonated beverages are round. It has to do with the pressure of the liquid inside. A square bottle would deform into a rounder shape because of the pressure.

Green tea, lemonade, milk-based drinks, all sorts of non-carbonated beverages use square packaging, but you will notice that if it is carbonated it must withstand pressure, and that means round.

Sorry, try designing a bottle for Snapple or something. Your design skills are wonderful, but your engineering and physics need a little more work.

Coca Cola would never, ever, use this bottle design. Although it's very nice and 'green', it in no way sports the famous signature Coca Cola bottle form. It's form isn't unique, it's quite dull actually. Take off the Coca Cola branding and it could be a Pepsi bottle for what not. Nice try, but no Coca Cola product i'm afraid.

"So if it requires the support of the other bottles in the box to stop it collapsing, what happens when it's free standing and only half full, or the lids off?"

It's not that it won't stand up under its own weight - those are just crease lines! The point is that it's crushable, not that it collapses without any load on it.

They already make crushable water bottles like this and reuse isn't an issue.

It also won't crush while sealed and capped because of the airtight seal and the air/liquid pressure inside the bottle. It has much more to do with this than the "support" of other bottles around it. Crushing an empty coke can is easy with one hand, try it with a full sealed can, not gonna happen.

Former structural package designer? You should know that they are stackable before opening because soda is pressurized. Just like a beercan this package can only be crushed easily after it has been opened..________________________________________________________________________________________________

"I realized they would be stronger with their buddies." - Idiot writer

@Lucy, reusing plastic bottles results in bleach being leaked into the liquid. It's explicitly said NOT to reuse plastic bottles.

Now if only we can solve the problem of the pressures that carbonation places on a package's structure

@Lucy

Then nothing happens. The problem is whether the bottles stacked on top would crush it because of its accordion based structure. The bottle doesn't magically implode when it's empty.

Well Lucy it does not prevent people from reusing it because when it goes to the recycling place they melt it down to make other bottles

This design has so many problems with it, I don't know where to start.
1) You need to design a pressure vessel. Coke is carbonated. That design in general and the base in particular will deform after filling, and completely deform in any kind of heat above room temperature.
2) You'll have a hard time getting those sharp corners to blow out in PET.
3) You've got to consider manufacturing. These bottles need to be cranked out at about 1800 per mold per hour. An offset neck is a nightmare for that.
4) Do you have any idea what an accordion does under pressure? It expands. This is a horrible idea. You don't want a hinge in a pressure vessel.
5) How do you expect this to vend in the army of existing vending machines in the world?

Stick to your crayons and leave the design and engineering to the big boys.

I doesn't need the support of other bottles to stop it collapsing. It is a pressurised bottle just like any other Coke bottle so would easily be able to withstand the weight of stacking. Even if not pressurised, water does not compress much and coke is mostly water.

@Lucy - WTF do you reuse coke bottles for?

If the bottle is full and closed I thing it dont need other bottles for prevent a colapse.

Geneva gin bottles got their unique shape for this very reason.

Lucy, if it's half full, and open, it's not going to have any weight pressing on it.

the bottle collapses outwards, the label provides the outer pressure.

The pressure inside the container will help support the extra weight, that's not the problem (although supporting the sides would help). The problem is that the bottle won't collapse without ripping holes in the corners. It is not round after all.

I don't think this design offers any of the advantages the designer suggests that it does. Looks cool but it is the work of a freshman.

So Coke in a Tetrapak. That's original.

@Lucy, It's not like a sock you drink coke out of. It would require some force enacted on it to cause collapsing. Think about bendy straws and how they have that little segment that collapses and stretches at the will of the user.

@Lucy - it's not so easy to collapse that it will buckle under it's own weight. That would be absurd. No, it would not prevent people reusing the bottle.

My only gripe with the design is the offset lid. That would do little to improve drinkability and would go far in complicating the stacking process.

RE: Lucy:

if the bottle is solo and under normal circumstances, it doesnt collapse. They were referring to its shipping & stacking ability.
When stacking the bottle for shipping methods, it uses its tight square shape pressed side by side other bottles to prevent from collapsing.

Doesn't really need to be stacked with other bottles not to collapse. Being full with coke would not let it compress.

In response to Lucy's comment, water bottles are ribbed for the same reason and they don't collapse when they are half full. They can also be reused although it isn't recommended as the plastic degrades over the time and becomes toxic.

Lucy, have you never had water from a collapsible container? Same design but square. That and the contents ofcourse

lucy: Unless it's designed to do it on it's own, which I can't see happening, it will take at least a little pressure from above.

At the same time, I don't see the accordion feature being useful. Bottles are generally already crushed, unless the cap was put back on. But most people crush their plastic bottles to save space in their recycling bins or trash bags.

Lucy, actually people aren't supposed to re-use plastic bottles. It leaches extra amounts of plastic chemicals when you refill them and keep using them (which is a pretty good reason to avoid these portable endocrine disruptor delivery systems in the first place)

Good idea but it's flawed in two areas. First the square design would create weak points in the corners. Second your dealing with a pressurized liquid what would prevent the sides being pushed out. This design would work fine for non carbonated liquides. The only way this would work for pop would be if the bottle was made of glass.

@ Lucy:
The premise is not that the bottle would require the support of the other bottles at all times; only when there is *additional* weight on top of it, such as during shipping when there are bottles stacked on top of bottles. This would also not prevent reuse; it simply means that the bottle *could* be crushed with somewhat less pressure than otherwise required; not that it would collapse on its own without that pressure, however small.

Think of it like this: a drinking straw with a flexible neck can stand, unaided, while liquid flows through it. It can also be compressed into it's folded shape, but won't necessarily do it on it's own. Bottles like the one above have actually exists for over a decade, albeit not with liquid already contained within them. They were intended to be reusable water (or whatever) bottles, to allow someone to compress the bottle to whatever size was needed for the amount of liquid they needed to contain. These still exist; just google "collapsible accordian water bottle" and you'll find many examples.

The liquid inside the bottle is incompressible, no matter if it is in the original pallet or reused, filled with water, in someones bag. Even with only air inside the bottle, compression would not be achievable without removing the cap or having a machine punch a little hole in the bottle.

OK, so I guess you guys don't understand some simple laws of the universe.... first off the bottle will not collapse when it is full because the force required to compress fluid is to great... hell it probably wont even compress much if at all with the cap on when empty because air takes a lot of force to compress.... Anyways.

Lucy, the label on the bottle would be strong enough to keep the bottle from compressing under its own weight. When packed, the liquid/gas pressure inside the bottle would keep it standing, but I'm worried that having ribs which can be bent under normal force will cause the bottle to not be strong enough to contain pressurized soda, shake it too much and the bottle is done for.

Im pretty sure it'll take a fair amout of pressure to collapse it kinda like an aluminum can, there not likely to just melt right in front of you, great design I like it.

1. its ugly. coke has an iconic bottle design that is worth billions for them. try selling this to pepsi instead. but its still ugly.
2. its impractical. would use more plastic to produce. would reduce efficiency of production. the collapsible edges would expand because of carbonation in shipment. and the offset neck would make it unstable in shipment.

Lucy,

Notice that the author says "...the strength needed for stackability wouldn't jive with a crushable bottle". What he is saying is that since the bottle is crushable, if you were to stack a bunch of them, then the bottom one holding the most weight would crush. If you are the end consumer who is simply drinking out of one single bottle, it isn't going to crush unless you force it to. This is a handy design to allow more of them to fit into garbage cans because they won't take up as much space. It is similar to how cans get crushed.

It's definitely cool looking, and a good concept for disposal.

However, a number of issues prevent this from being practical. First, I'd guess that if this bottle was dropped, it would break pretty easily (explode, tear or otherwise mechanically fail). To have a strength and durability even close to that of a round container, it would have to be much thicker-walled. But in order for the pleats to fold for collapsing the bottle, the pleats would need to be very thin-walled. I would guess that there would also be manufacturing issues related to actually making the bottle in the square shape (blow-molding the corners while keeping the material reasonably thin in the middle of the bottle?).

The statement that "smaller footprint = smaller carbon footprint" is complete nonsense. Crush-size of the bottle wouldn't necessarily equate to smaller carbon footprint, particularly if the bottle would require more plastic to manufacture.

The cap being offset into one corner is aesthetically pleasing, but would offset the center-of-mass and a stacked tower of these bottles would be extremely easy to topple.

You also have the pressure INSIDE of the bottle too, dont forget. Its the same as it is now; screw the cap on an empty coke bottle and try to squish it. The air that's inside will prevent the bottle from collapsing also.

PHYSICS! Woo!

I think what the author is suggesting is that it wouldn't be like it would collapse if just left to its own devices, Lucy; it just doesn't collapse easy if surrounded by others. But if it's freestanding and you apply pressure to it, you could "crunch" it fairly easily when it comes time to recycle. At least, I'm fairly sure that's what's being suggested.

If it's half full you don't need the whole bottle.

The bottle being full and sealed, with the cap closed, will probably provide enough support to prevent it collapsing, even absent support from other bottles.

Stackable? Won't fit in most fridges.
Other than that, great new idea.

That looks pretty uncomfortable to hold to me. It might be good for the environment, but people will always prefer a nice, grippable round bottle to the hard edges of a square design.

It's a decent idea if the public would be willing to make that sacrifice in the name of sustainability. I doubt they would though.

Pressurized containers are usually cylindrical for a very good reason. If the bottle is designed to be easily compressed then the flat sides will inherently bulge when full (and pressurized). A bottle that bulges is going to be a hard sell when that deformation alludes to what the product inside will do to the user's waist (o;

> what happens when it's free standing and only half full, or the lids off?

Presumably you don't decide to stack other bottles on top of it while it's half-full and the lid is off, so it should be fine :-) Collapsible just means that it will collapse when pushed, not that it will spontaneously collapse itself as soon as you take it out of the box

most of the natural water bottle are designed to be compressed
http://zepbrook.co.uk/BrochurePages/water_coolers/Volvic%20Family.jpg
when the bottle is full it's naturally more resistant to compression because of the incompressible (to some extent) fluid dynamics
that design is very smart...

Hi Lucy,

The problem with collapsing is not when the bottle is freestanding - it's when the other bottles on top of it during shipping are weighing down upon it, i.e., when a large amount of pressure is applied from above on the bottle. The bottle doesn't collapse because of the added pressure on all 4 sides from neighboring bottles.

When the bottle is freestanding and half-full, it will stand straight up without a problem, because there is no large amount of pressure pushing down from it.

I work in the beverage industry and have some experience both as a designer, marketer and industry guy.
This design isn't going to fly.

the pressurized contents will blow out the sidewalls
requiring more plastic. This is both expensive and runs against the whole eco premise of the designers pitch.
the major companies want to consume shelf space in the market. This edges out the competitions ability to get their products on the shelf. I bet that the designer doesn't even know that the large companies actually *pay* or extort their access to prime shelf space in the store.
having a bunch of closely packed non standard bottled that are going to be hard to pull off the tight fitting shelf is going to make a joke out of this design.

This may fly in Japan where space is limited.
but it's not going to fly at all in the west where the dynamics are very different.

More plastic used = more expense / eco concerns
Odd shape = retrofit of entire $$$ystem
Less space used = more space for competition
prospect of consumer rejection over a "traditional icon" form.

Now about that high-fructose corn syrup...

Another benefit of collapsing is that if you drink half the contents, and then collapse the bottle to fit, it won't go flat as fast. This is because there wouldn't be as much air space for gas to escape the liquid, so it would likely stay dissolved.

When it's free standing and only half full, what stops it from collapsing is *the drinker not smashing it*. This is no different than a soda can or current plastic bottle. It's not like gravity is going to make it collapse.

This a really interesting concept. However, I agree with Lucy.

Lucy- water doesn't compress. While its filled it is collapse-proof

@Lucy
The bottle will not collapse by itself. It is simply ribbed so that it collapses in a predictable fashion when considerable force is applied to the top.
This is similar to the way a car's "crumple zone" is designed.

Lucy, it will not collapse when it's free standing and only half full, or when the lid is off, because there is no pressure on it. If however, you stack half full bottles free standing with the caps off, they may collapse.

The bottle is strong because it's sealed and filled with fluid, not because other bottles are around it. Try crushing an unopened aluminum can (vs. an empty one).

I believe round is better for the environment. You use the least material per unit volume with a sphere. Cylinder still beats square. Aside from that, maintaining a rigid box-shape requires a lot more material. The sides want to bulge. Cylinder doesn't have that problem.

Stackable is a cute idea, though. Make the bottom fit the top.

Lucy, he doesn't mean it'll collapse easily just free standing, rather that the weight of other bottles when stacked, will not crush it in as it needs to be crushed for recycling.

Come on, it's so basic that it's painful to hear the question of stability even asked...

When it's full of liquid, the internal pressure inside the bottle would keep it rigid (remember that you cannot easily compress a liquid). If the bottle is half full, that's a different story... but remember that the drink is carbonated, so even a non-full bottle would have a relatively high air pressure inside the bottle which would keep the bottle rigid.

You can test this yourself on a normal pastic bottle. Fill it up with water and try to crush it, or half full it with Coke and shake the bottle. Once shaken, try to crush the bottle.

It will be crush-resistant during shipping regardless of what it's surrounded with. Why? Because the bottle is filled with incompressible fluid. The liquid in the bottle will keep it from collapsing as long as it remains sealed.

This principle has been used in designing liquid-fueled rockets for many years - they are made of incredibly flimsy metal that cannot even support its own weight, but they are incredibly strong once the fuel tanks are pressurized (typically done with inert gas during manufacturing.)

Coke is bad for you and the environment. It would be best if people stopped or at least reduced their intake of the substance. That said there may be a number of applications for this bottle.

It'll NEVER fly, Oroville!
You don't change icons just for "green" purposes. This is the most foolish "green" idea yet!
Al Gore wouldn't even like it!

It would not need the support of the other bottles to prevent it from collapsing.

The last paragraph was referring to mass shipment, where there are hundreds of bottles stacked on top of each other.

With all of that weight, the bottle may collapse, but the bottle is designed so the ribs need space to fold out.

When the bottles are packed, there is no space for the ribs to fold, thus no collapsing.

Now, without bottles on either side and on top, the bottle will be completely fine. There is no excess weight on top of it.

Plus, the cap needs to be removed before you can crumple the bottle. With the cap on, the bottle will not collapse, but may deform.

With bottles surrounding it in mass shipment, there is no such problem due to lack of space.
Without bottles surrounding it, there is still no such problem because there is no pressure.

Very well designed.
I would love to see these in stores soon!

Andrew, this is a wonderful piece, I love the look of the bottle and could easily see a spectacular billboard effect being created by lining up a row of these. Great work!

Well, what happens if you take a cylindrical bottle like you have not and try to collapse it while the lid's off? It's the same thing. You're going to have to exert at least some pressure before the bottle collapses.
These bottles weren't designed for reusing. Why would a company want you to reuse their bottle? If you wanted to reuse a bottle, get a reusable water bottle.

It would never collapse on its own, that's stupid. Why on earth would it do that.

I've seen water bottles exactly like this, square and with ribs or dents so you can easily make them smaller so the design is tried and true.

Looks like a Fiji water bottle.

The pressure of surrounding bottles?
I'd guess that the pressure of the contents would make it pretty stable. It's probably around 30-40 psi at room temperature.

I don't think the ribbed design is meant to be so collapsible that the bottle collapses on its own. Its more that the a slight scoring on the bottle side allows the bottle to collapse like an accordion when a significant pressure is applied.

When the bottle is full, capped and being shipped out of the bottling plant, it should have the strength for stacking because the high internal air pressure from the carbonation adds to the strength of each bottle.

Clever design. And when it's free-standing (or half full) the pressure of CO2 inside the bottle will keep it in shape, like a balloon, Lucy.

my guess is that it cant collapse if theres something in it i.e liquid

What on earth makes you think that it being half full and free standing would cause it not to work? Or the lid being off?

A SHELL cannot be CRUSHED by contents that are INSIDE of it.

As for reusing the bottle, I don't know why you would want to. Buy a water bottle if you need it, but recycling is based on reprocessing the plastics. This is an efficient bottle, not necessary a more eco-friendly bottle, though I could see it being indirectly more eco friendly.

Lucy, the bottle won't just fold like it's nothing, it needs pressure from both sides for it to fold. What OP meant was that when other bottles are stacked on top, the pressure at the sides will maintain the support.

why not a cylinder? it has the best surface area to volume ratio after a sphere. hence why all canned food is in a cylinder not a square. less plastic = less carbon..... its not rocket science

I agree with Lucy-- what happens when the bottle is only so full?

But also, people should not reuse plastic bottles anyway. It is a major safety hazard.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/30/business/30milk.html

Not too original...

Um... the limit on a beverage truck is WEIGHT, not CUBE.

Cool design, but, it misses the requirements of the real world.

It won't collapse when the lid is on since the liquid inside is incompressible. Even if it just has air inside it still won't compress.

I don't understand the crushing issue during shipping. If it's full and under pressure during shipping, how is it going to get crushed?

Although Lucy's point about reuse might be an issue.

Also, what about the pressure from the carbon dioxide? Those bottles are quickly going to turn round unless they use a ton of plastic to maintain their rigidity.

I don't think you'd want to be reusing the bottle for drinking purposes anyway..

Gravity alone would not be enough to crush something of this design, Lucy. If it's free standing and half full, it would be crushed only if somebody actually crushed it.

@Lucy, I think it would only need the support on all sides if under load. You would have to use pressure to crush it, but full of liquid, it would be okay. Try crushing a full coke bottle with the lid on. Try crushing an empty coke bottle with the lid off.

Great design and I like the Eco friendliness of it too. I wonder what coke or other drink manufacturers think of it and if they'd consider using it?

Lucy, good question. It's strong enough to maintain its shape under normal conditions, but weak enough that you can crush it by pushing at each end. It's not so weak that it can't be reused.

It wouldn't collapse with liquid in it.....

Very smart and elegant design, I hope Coca Cola picks this up!

I would think the carbonation (along with the liquid inside the container) would keep it from collapsing.

Uh, I imagine nothing. Plastic bottles don't collapse under their own weight, Lucy.

The fact when its on the shelf its full of incompressible fluid is gonna help keep it fairly rigid anyway the same goes for the current packaging you probably couldnt stack a pallet of full bottles onto a bottom row of empty ones.

try crushing a full, closed bottle of coke now and see if its the surrounding containers that give it strength.

its the liquid and gas sealed inside that makes the bottle hard to crush, not the plastic alone

but would it take less plastic to make it both bend and perform its primary job of holding the contents? or more?

Neat but I'm thinking "Would it be comfortable to hold while drinking it". Also the coke bottle design is synonymous with the brand image which I don't see Coke ever changing.

What I like about the current Coca-Cola bottle (and Fanta, for that matter) is the ergonomics and the grip you get.

The square proposition makes all sense not only from it's environmentally perspective but also in terms of expenses cut in shipping.

But it will be just like a carton box of juice, it's very simple in terms of design. I would have to try it first...

This is not a design innovation at all, I saw square water bottles being used in Guatemala nations years ago - they can't afford to have the wasted space there to begin with. Way to copy a poor country's idea and post it as your own (or at least not do your research beforehand).

"then I realized the bottle could be designed so that it's strong when surrounded on all sides"

... or filled with liquid, making it not crushable? But yes, surrounding the bottles on sides so they don't fall is a good idea.

Just because it collapses to take less space doesn't mean it's got a smaller carbon footprint. The carbon footprint is reduced by 66% when the core material (the mass) that makes up the package is reduced by that much. Collapsible only improves the convenience of recycling, it doesn't magically make the carbon footprint smaller.

As a Packaging Engineer, my first thought is that stacking strength would come from the contents (i.e. pressurized soda). It is only AFTER the bottle is empty, that it would be crushed. But of course, you would have to conduct compression testing as well as distribution testing to know for sure.

DO NOT reuse plastic bottles ever they are single use

It obviously wouldn't just collapse on it's own. You would crush it like a can. Reuse it if you want, crush when done. I think it's genius.

Reusing a plastic bottle like that is bad for your health anyways, reuse has some sort of chemical release issue when it is heated via washing, and bacteria in an unsealed bottle collects easily in those little crevices.

As for free standing and half full, most bottles today crush in your hands easily anyways, so I don't see how that can be a problem...

One should not reuse these kinds of plastic bottles anyways. Putting additional liquids, especially hot ones, can leech chemicals used in plastic production into the liquid.

Lucy, it won't collapse on it's own. The author was concerned about strength when in a large stack, but freestanding it would not have any downward pressure applied to it. Reusability, however, would still be a valid question.

Don't be worried about the collapsing feature (it's a good idea for empties) as when full the bottle is pressurized ~ 40psi - plenty of power to hold up a stack of bottles in a semi (that's a little more pressure than what holds up your car on it's compressible tires too...).

@Lucy: Why would it be necessary for people to reuse the bottle?

The liquid inside should allow it to maintain its structure when stacked no?

Water and soda bottles were never meant to be reused. Hence the "DO NOT REUSE" printed on nearly every single plastic bottle in existence.

Very nice, this student has a bright future.

Very nice but imo forgets the 2 main reasons for the normal coke design: usability and branding. I am no designer, but it should be possible to get these 2 points into the new design, too. Right? I hope someone does it and the company gets convinced to change to this kind of design. That kind of environment protection really makes sense. I can support it!

When full and sealed the pressurized contents would be enough to maintain the bottle's integrity.

Once opened, if you slammed the bottle down hard you'd collapse it some and make a mess, but you'd make a mess if you did that today anyways. So whatever.

Being square, would it be able to withstand the enormous pressure of the liquid inside? If the bottles are circular then the pressure is even on the surface, but if it has corners then it'll put more pressure in the middle of the sides and cause the bottle to bow out, unless it's incredibly strong, and therefore made of stronger thicker plastic.
Water comes in square bottles, but you when squeeze a water bottle, there's very little pressure, you try squeezing a coke bottle.
It's a nice idea, but ultimately, fail.

when it is being shipped it is filled with COKE, doesn't matter what shape the container is it will not compress. Brilliant idea.

Methinks it would be sturdy enough to support it's own weight and be as reusable as any other bottle.

It doesn't seem like it would collapse that easily when its filled with Coke... Consider how easy it is to crush bottles or cans that we drink from now when they are filled versus empty. It's physics. Or something.

I think the outward force exerted by the liquid inside the bottle would be sufficient to keep it from collapsing, that's the same reason soda cans are much thinner than they used to be.

You can assume the liquid is incompressible and that the bottle won't fail due to the increased pressure from the stacked bottles above....

The pressure from carbonation would ensure it's still strong structurally for mass stacking. After it's open, I doubt it'd have any issue just standing up under it's own weight.

Lucy, It would require that you apply pressure to collapse it. Its not going to do so on its own, so standing by itself or with the top open it should be fine. Same for reuse, so long as you don't collapse it the bottle will retain the original function.

Lucy: I think what he meant is that it would require the support of surrounding bottles to keep it from collapsing if you stack another full bottle on top of it.

Of course Coca-Cola would never produce such a radically different bottle, but I'd like to see someone else use the idea.

Lucy, think of it like a bendy straw, it's still stiff when it's extended.

And it might be nice to hang onto a plastic bottle that you can compress when it's empty; it would come in handy for hiking and packing out after camping.

The thing I'm curious about is circumventing decades of cupholder design. Good thing it has a lid on it.

The pressure inside the bottle would be enough to stop the bottle from collapsing. Soda bottles in general are quite stiff, from all the gas trying to escape.

This idea is great :D

Filled with fluid, it would be fine!
Half full it should not be in a stack?
It would have to be able to support itself once open, just not a stack.
Unfortunately
Cylinder uses less plastic for a given volume, so smaller environmental impact.
It is much harder to hold a square shape than a cylinder shape

@Lucy I think "strength needed for stackability" is key to answering your question. The concern is this: being ribbed purposely makes the bottle easy to squish. When you stack bottles on top of one another, this may cause unintended squishing. But, thanks to forced exerted by surrounding bottles, every bottle will stay intact.

There is no danger of free standing bottles collapsing in this design.

You also have to account for the pressure of carbonation. You can feel a normal bottle or can relax a little when you open it for the first time.

@Lucy: no, it requires other bottles to remain stacked in a big stack of bottles (e.g. while shipping), not when it's just sitting by itself.

And to your second point, no it doesn't collapse so easily.

very nice ...

I don't think it will collapse on itself just when it was being transported and had bottles on top of other bottles

The carbonation of the drink would keep pressure on the walls, preventing them from collapsing.

By the time the customer opens the drink, the bottle's structural integrity is less important.

Brilliant thinking.

@lucy: if the bottle is half full or the lid is off, why on earth would you be stacking it?

also,
the article says something about the bottle maintaining its shape because of being surrounded by other bottles, but wouldn't the fact that it contains a non-compressible liquid under moderately carbonated pressure be enough?

Your not supposed to reuse plastic bottles it says so on the bottle.

Lucy: I think the idea is that the bottle is collapsable, not that it would just collapse on its own - you'd need to apply pressure first. I agree that this would prevent people from reusing it, but how often does that happen? I'm impressed. This is nifty, elegant work.

I'm pretty sure you missed the point. It still takes effort to collapse the bottle. It doesn't do it randomly or without pressure.

reusing plastic bottles instead of sending them straight to the recycling is unhealthy. that plastic is not meant to hold up over time. google it. buy a real waterbottle.

If it is full of liquid, will it really collapse? Hmmm?

The offset cap and the design overall, while cool, is not likely very friendly toward extrusion and/or blow molding. Don't count on seeing it, but very cool idea. Fuji Water bottles are about as square as can be molded affordably.

To answer lucy question i'm sure the built up pressure of the Carbon dioxide inside would be enough to keep the bottle in from, plus i doubt they'd be that easily collapsible that the weight of the plastic themselves would crush them, so they'd be fine in single units........my problem and why i'm commenting is, that it's not possible to make a mold to produce these bottles, the desing would have to be smoothed out a bit more, and second, though great idea going square there's a reason bottles are round, the round shape take more pressure and it's better suited for human handling.

Bottled water is designed to be collapsable after use, and isn't crushed by the weight of other water bottles while in shipping.

Hey Lucy, if the bottle was only half full or the lid was off, it's highly unlikely that it would have several other pallets of Coke stacked on top of it to crush it down (which was the concern raised in the article). It's not like you remove the support from around it and it instantly collapses. ;)

A bottle full of liquid is hard to crush. a bottle full of carbonated liquid is very hard to crush. Bulging sides on a square bottle would be a more likely problem.

Bottes are round in part because the need to sustain the pressure of carbonated beverage in all wheather. You will need to make the bottle much more thicker to overcome the structural deficiency and then, with that much plastic, is the bottle still eco-friendly, or is it just green washing ?

High marks for high-pallet-density, but a curve-killing square?

The same dense pack can be achieved by tessellating the iconic Coca-cola wave. For a starting point, search for an image of Ikea's SKAMT Vase.
http://images.google.com/images?q=SK%C4MT%20Vase

I bet the bottle would be designed to be pretty strong, and could stand on its own.

...of course, some plastic bottles are already ribbed for the same reason, when it's crushed it can fold like an accordion.

Collapsible does not imply that it will collapse into itself with mere gravity!

I know...if only we could fill it with some kind of liquid to keep the external pressure from deforming the bottle. Oh buyt what liquid could we use?

@Lucy, they have crushable bottles already, just not square ones.. it takes quite a bit of hand pressure to collapse them when they're completely empty. The pressure a standard person could put on these even fully empty is far less than that of shipping/packing.

Call me crazy, but how does "smaller footprint = smaller carbon footprint"? That doesn't make any sense. It's just a denser footprint. It's a smaller footprint + same carbon as before. Maybe I'm receiving more sneakiness than is intended.

All the best ...

I think carbonation pressure would help prevent collapse and the bottle wouldn't collapse on its own. Force would have to be applied to crush it much like an aluminum can. Besides, how many people stack bottles of cola in their homes?

I really hope Coca-Cola implements Kim's idea!

Lucy; It's ribbed to make it EASIER to compress, it's not weak enough to compress on its own, any why would you stack a bunch of half filled bottles with the lids off?

you're forgetting that being coke bottles, they will be full of coke...
you can't crush it when it's full of liquid. even if the bottles were empty, as long as the lids were on, you still couldn't crush them... think about it..

plastic?

They can make biodegradable wax paper bottles?
They can also make corn starch biodegradable plastics.

I like the way you think, but we need to get plastic out of the equation alltogether. Would you consider editing this post to mention that it's being made out of PLA?

Really good. The label would also give it strength before recycling is needed. How often do you stack plastic bottles one on top of the other in a single column? Everything about this design makes sense.

I like it.

this is uber cool........

It's strong enough without bottles around when you have it in your fridge with stuff on it.

Evian has designed their water bottles that way long time ago.
No accident so far. You need to put quite a lot of pressure on both side of the bottle.

as an oilman, i love it, and so do my saudi arabian friends

I honestly don't know where to begin.

The design is simultaneously less safe, uses more materials, and would take far, far longer to manufacture & label than current designs. There are multiple reasons why ALL cans and bottles are ROUND!

A polycarbonate soda bottle is a pressure vessel. I would recommend that Mr. Kim first start his attempts at a re-design by understanding the basic physics and manfacture of thin-walled structures which must safely enclose a pressurized fluid.

Of course it won't collapse when it's unopened and full of liquid. I don't see Coke replacing their iconic bottle with this, but otherwise it's great work.

Nice idea. Can see the benefits of the square design for stack-ability and 'footprint' savings in transit. Can see the benefits of compressible bottle when pressure is applied top & bottom, but not sure about the benefit of it in a normal recycling bin, where it will not (I assume) compress naturally. So not sure if that is a gimmick. What about the sleeve? What is it made of & is it recyclable?

As one who seeks the potential of 2nd use in all design primarily meant only for one, I would dearly love to see this come to pass.

The possibilities are endless!

(Pragmatic and enviROI concerns all noted)

You only stack bottles that are under pressure and full of liquid.
If the bottle is full and under pressure it cannot collapse if you put another one on top of it. Period.

I've seen "collapsible bottles" usually it means you have to excert a pretty big amount of pressure to compress the bottle without the cap, after which you screw the cap back on to keep it a small package. It won't collapse by itself.

The major issue is your looking at needing 3-5 times the amount of plastic for a) the bottle to hold shape under pressure and b) because round bottles hold more liquid per surface area (so the bottle needs more surface area, more plastic, to hold the same amount).

That would probably make it a lot less green than current designs :)

@Lucy - chances are that the bottle is made of the same material that current soda bottles are made of, in which case they should not be reused for drinking anyway.

Well, wouldn't the pressure inside each bottle prevent collapse unless they were opened? Try crushing a closed bottle vs an open one.

Internal Pressure would maintain the integrity for shipping. All the ribs do is control the way it is compacted, personally its kind of silly when everything compresses to 10% of its original material with enough force.

New minds with new ideas! Isn't that really what it's all about!

Great job Andrew!

Umm, the contents 95% liquid and under pressure - I don't think there'd be any problems with crushing during transit.

Just because the bottle is designed to be collapsible doesn't mean it would collapse that easily! The evian water bottles in the uk has the same feature, even the 2l ones, an they require a fair push to get them to crush.

Good design

A square bottle would also reduce the 'wasted' space between the bottle during transport - you could either make the pallets smalle or get more in the same space.

David.

@Lucy: I would imagine that he is referring to it as solving a problem in transport. That is when boxes of coke are stacked on top of each other and a lot of force is put on the top.

It probably needs some slight but deliberate force to collapse it when it's on it's own. I doubt the bottle is floppy and soft.

Personally I'm a glass guy. I'm really trying to reduce my plastic usage. Plus it may just be something in my mind but I like the taste better from glass bottles. But that could easily just be simple confirmation bias.

Lucy, I think that is highly likely that the rigidity of the bottle does not solely rely on surrounding bottles. Im sure it would be capable of standing freely without collapsing.

Interesting and aslo rather aesthetically pleasing.

I think what they are saying is that the bottle will be strong enough to support other bottles when shipping, not that it needs the other bottles for support. It will still require force (you crushing it) in order to collapse it once you are done.

They figured out another way to stop in collapsing during shipping: they will fill them with a brown liquid and seal it with a lid. ;)

just because its physically crushed down smaller does NOT mean a smaller carbon footprint. Still the same amount of plastic.

I guess its a nice piece of work, but then again it is just another piece of plastic that WILL go into the landfills because people don't recycle like they should. Of course, this is beside the point that Coke is a bane on humans health and general well being. You could put something else in the bottle.

Obvious that he's a freshman. This is a half-baked idea. You get an F

IMO this design is a fail
it looks like it would hold less liquid, the sides of the bottle would be very weak which is why we use round bottles, most vending machines wont be able to hold these cause they are rectangle like, selling these to stores will still need some kinda of box to hold them in, and there is no way a square bottle can collasp like that, and even if they did event a way to do that an average consumer would not go to all the trouble of ripping off the label crushing the bottle then having to also throw away the label.

fact is this design has done nothing to save money or the enviroment.

Why have it collapsible at all? It does nothing for recycling, unless we think it's *better* to throw compact plastic in landfill.

In fact, it may take more energy to mould a collapsible bottle. And if not, the wastage from bottles that break during the manufacturing process will be higher.

Hmmm...while the style and stackability is rad (and I'll admit my ignorance as to whether a square bottle would end up round or not) the collapsibility is greenwashing and not a whole lot more.

fail

This design rather looks like a "Coca-cola" perfume product. I personally prefer the regular look. But, if it has a smaller foot print, which is actually enormous, if you understand the fact that billions of bottles of pop get drunk yearly, then it is morally the better option.

Ultimately, the drink (its taste) is the only thing that matters. I personally, prefer the taste of the Coke in the Glass Bottles over the platic bottles.

I agree that it wouldn't be anymore environmentally friendly. Also, if I had to choose between a bottle of Pepsi or a square of Coke on a car trip, I would pick the Pepsi. What's the point of buying a beverage that won't fit in a cupholder. This could cause a drop in Coke sales. This is an idea that wasn't well thought out.

Either way I think that it is an outstanding thought. I know I would buy it more. Coke companies are always looking for new ways to get people to drink more coke. A new design will more than likely work.
This is ment to be easier to recycle not to reuse it .
Personally I THINK people are thinking into it way to much., I know you will have to but there needs to be a change instead of being like "everyone" else.

I think this is one of the greatest things I have seen recently. Good job. My only concern is "How would it feel in the hand?"

My immediate reaction was: awesome. I like the look and the space saving design.

But then I though about durability. Not in shipping or storing in large volumes, but after the sale. If I were to purchase a bottle with the redesign, drop it on my way out of the store and have it impact on one of the corners... I would think a rupture would be likely, especially if said corner impacts with another corner (rock, shopping cart bar, whatever).
I'd be willing to bet that you could throw a Coke bottle (as currently designed) 5 or 6 feet in the air and it would not rupture on impact unless it happens to land on the cap, which would be the case for both designs.

You could overcome that by using thicker plastic but that would kind of defeat the purpose.

I think that we should worry about more important things than whether or not an untested first year design student has created a new bottling concept............

This banal design is not even remotely brilliant as it lacks any sense of applied physics and is clearly untested---not to mention its unimaginative and uninspired design........

It lacks practicality, artistry and functionality.

Please make my comment the last comment on this blog

I don't think enough of you idiots responded to Lucy yet. Please, a few more of your insights are clearly needed.

Here's an actual question... a lot of folks have mentioned that internal pressure would deform the bottle from square towards a rounder shape, which makes total sense. Question is... would it be possible to build the crumple lines in a way that offer structural support to the sides so that they keep it from bulging as well as crumple from the top? Say a half circle indented groove?

Wow, even with the legitimate criticisms, why are so many commenters on this blog such jerks about it? Do you really have nothing better to do than to try to discourage a design student who has put out some creative ideas?

I'm seriously asking.

Really agree to use this conceptual for water application.Nice idea.

i don't know about this...Square shaped cup holders in cars what next? i think square design would be underused to say the least, and may work well in china but not in america where god pays attention...

Ugly don't change it. Stop bending to the eco terrorist. Everything you do doesn't matter we are all doomed.

Interesting but form consumer point of view...looks little bit like perfume not sure if my mind would let me to enjoy it!
For Dimitri... It is called constructive criticism it is supposed to give the designer feedback so one knows what direction to choose when designing and improving design. Constructive criticism is the best thing a designer can hear!!!

It's an intriguing concept. I've never designed a beverage container, much less a container for a carbonated beverage, so I have nothing to say from an engineering or structural integrity standpoint.

I think they look very interesting lined up. With the asymmetrical neck, it provides plenty of options for playing with its orientation on the shelf for visual effect. It's a very clean, streamlined, modern design.

However, I do agree that, while it's distinctive, it's not very "Coke." It incorporates the Coke swish, but other than that, it could be any brand and any sort of liquid. Coca-Cola has built a lot of brand equity with their contoured bottles, and their energetic, fun-loving sort of image.

I think it could be an excellent option for a high-end beverage, perhaps one of those boutique waters, an exotic juice, or some sort of smoothie. If it weren't something you would buy from a vending machine, the non-standard form wouldn't be an issue. For that type of product, a highly distinctive presence on the shelf could justify a higher per-unit production cost.

Of course, I wouldn't recommend doing it unless it could be produced so that the resulting bottle could be recycled with the other #1 plastic drink bottles.

Hi. A couple of ideas here:

It's true that many food and beverage brands are (already)converting to square or rectangular packs for just the reason you understood... better case packing efficiency, lower carbon footprint. This a hugely popular trend now, but we haven't seen it in CSD. The reason is that it simply won't stay square.

Pressurization will inevitable make a square bottle round. Fill a Fiji bottle with fresh Coke, cap it, shelf it and you'll see this in action. And remember that because you opened and poured, there's significantly less carbonation in that bottle than in a freshly filled pack.

An off-set neck design, though not impossible to blow, couldn't move through Coke's system at the speed or volume with which their product is run. This would drastically slow down line time.

IF these variable didn't exist, the idea is totally noble and sound. But they do, and that's the challenge in CSD design (or, conversely, in hot-fill design where you are contending with vacuum rather than pressure).

Ignoring all of this though... from a branding perspective, it might be nice to work the waist into the proposal, as it's a huge part of their identity. You could build a waist into the lower mid-section of the design. The cross-sections of the bottle's major areas of width would still be square, so you'd get the sustainable benefits of the square while still honoring their brand equity.

All those people giving poor Lucy a hard time about her crushing concerns and yet NO ONE has said anything at all about the rubbish being spouted about NOT REUSING bottles.
Do a quick search on why you shouldn't and you get quite a few hits on the fact that this was missinformation that has no scientific evidence to support it. In fact the research institute stated as being the ones who say you aren't supposed to have actually denied that this info came from them, and have stated it IS okay to reuse the bottles.