We’re all familiar with the epidemic of single-use plastic bottles plaguing the environment. EarthDay.org estimates that Americans alone purchase about 50 billion water bottles per year –– for an average of some 13 bottles per month for every person in the U.S.
This is driving efforts by many to promote the use of reusable water bottles. Based on the above statistics, doing so could save 156 plastic bottles per person per year. A study by Grand View Research values the global reusable water bottle market at $9.28 billion in 2023 and projects it will grow 4.4 percent a year from 2024 to 2030.
Blending Origami with Eco-materials
One firm trying to make a difference is a Bulgaria-based design tech startup called DiFOLD. It has developed what it calls “the first foldable bottle made of plant-based material.” It combines the ancient Japanese paper-folding art of origami with modern, eco-friendly materials to make a reusable bottle that can collapse down to 20 percent of its original size.
DiFOLD co-founders Petar Zaharinov and Radina Popova (All images courtesy of DiFOLD)
Radina Popova, a former ad agency executive, and Petar Zaharinov, an architect and designer, began working together in mid-2018 when each was accepted into the Climate-KIC, an accelerator for clean-tech startups.
They jointly explored commercial and product applications of various foldable geometrical patterns that Zaharinov had previously discovered and learned could be patented. DiFOLD later got utility patents in Europe, the U.S., Canada, and India for its foldable designs. The firm also has patented a portfolio of other foldable designs in the U.S. and EU.
Overcoming Obstacles
The pair turned to Kickstarter in June 2020 to crowdsource its original Origami Bottle design. It took only four hours to fully fund the campaign and raised more than $136,000 in 30 days.
They then had to fight their way through mass-production challenges and COVID-related delays, before finally bringing their Origami Bottle to market in July 2022. It was then that they were able to ship more than 6,500 bottles to all of those who backed its Kickstarter effort.
Despite being foldable, the Origami Bottle remains very rigid and sturdy and offers the stability of traditional water bottles, according to Zaharinov. The bottle, which holds 25 ounces of water (and other noncarbonated liquids), is designed for frequent flyers, commuters, hikers, runners, and anyone else with an active life.
The founders promote their foldable bottle as perfect for the adventurous.
The pair acknowledges there are many collapsible bottles already on the market. But most, they say, “do not perform well across important parameters such as stability, ergonomics, odors and sustainability. Most of them are made of silicone or other soft, non-recyclable materials, which makes them very unstable and unpleasant to use.”
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Using Envalior’s Biopolymer
The injection molded Origami Bottle is the first in the category to be made using recyclable, plant-based materials. For the bottle’s body they opted for a biopolymer called Arnitel Eco produced by Envalior. Lanxess AG and Royal DSM NV combined their engineering materials businesses in 2023 to form Envalior, based in Düsseldorf, Germany. Arnitel Eco is a high-performance thermoplastic copolyester (TPC) made partially from renewable rapeseed oil in place of mineral oil that significantly reduces CO2 emissions from cradle to gate.
This polymer is food-grade, BPA- and BPS-free, and does not leach any chemicals even when filled with hot water. The bottle’s body is made entirely of TPC resin, 43 percent of which is the bio component sustainably sourced from rapeseed. The balance currently is consisting of Envalior’s petroleum-based Arnitel resin. DiFOLD says it expects to be able to increase the biopolymer component in the future.
The compound is closed-loop recyclable, meaning it can be recycled without losing its properties. The category of this polymer is TPC, TPE-E, No. 7. The body is durable and capable of resisting 100.000 folds without any damage to the folding creases.
The bottle’s neck and cap are made of stainless steel, with gaskets made of food-grade silicone. The folds are on the outside, so the inside surface is smooth. The mouth is 1.37 inches wide, making it easy to clean with a bottle brush. It retails for roughly $32.
Leveraging a Novel Design
Zaharinov, the company’s chief technology officer, explains that DiFOLD’s design and engineering is what makes its folding technology unique. He reduced the number of polygons along the tube’s circumference to just four. “In this way,” he said, “the structure works in two very different regimes. Firstly, it keeps its round shape natural and behaves like a non-foldable structure when unfolded. Secondly, it works like a classical rigid origami mechanism in a folded and semi-folded state.”
Its collapsible feature makes the bottle easy and less expensive to ship.
In order to move from one state to the other, the user needs to press on particular spots on its creases of the structure. Additionally, it it can work not only with cylindrical shapes but also with conical ones and mixtures of the two. Practically every shape and container can become a collapsible one by applying this concept, he noted.
With that in mind, DiFOLD calls the Origami Bottle its flagship product. That’s because the company aims to apply its patented technology to a broad range of other products, to include bowls, boxes, jars, cups and mugs.
Popova, the company’s CEO, says, “The idea is that we apply these patterns for the creation of various foldable products, which can be made of different materials.”
DiFOLD’s Origami Bottle has already earned several honors, including the IF Design Award, the Design Educates Award and the Red Dot Product Design Award –– all just in the past year alone.
The company currently sells its bottle directly to consumers online as well as to corporations and outdoor retailers. Meantime, Popova and Zaharinov –– as they aim to broaden their product portfolio –– are seeking to break into the packaging industry and also sell to coffee shop chains and other retailers that are embracing the increasingly popular reusable and refillable business models. They also hope to partner in future with companies such as Ireland’s 2GoCup and Germany’s RECUP, two large European players that operate deposit return systems.
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