Personal care products like shampoo come in liquid form, primarily for convenience. Rather than expect a consumer to spend a few moments lathering up a dry or solid cleanser, manufacturers offer shampoo or soap in liquid form.
This convenience comes at an environmental cost, unfortunately. The added water is heavy and produces greenhouse gas emissions in transport. Plastic bottles are inexpensive and lightweight, making them the preferred choice for packaging liquid shampoo. But plastic bottles add to the existing plastic pollution crisis. Consumers and designers concerned with this tradeoff between ease and environmental damage are looking at more sustainable ways to get clean without making the planet dirtier.
While the “dissolving bottles” are solid shampoo bars, the familiar bottle shape is intentional and is used to make the sustainable concept more approachable. The messaging endures as the bar is used and grows smaller.
Additionally, BBDO Guererro open-sourced the design and offered the molds at cost to local artisans to encourage more sustainable soap options. So far, some resorts on Boracay Island have adopted the dissolving bottles in the Philippines.
“Boracay gets thousands of tourists every day,” says Julia Lervik, owner of Diniview Villa Resort, Boracay. “That’s a lot for a small island. When they come here, they fall in love with the beach. They don’t want to see plastic in the crystal-clear waters. The dissolving bottle is a simple solution to keeping our beaches clean while making hotels like ours play a bigger role.”
