Goneshells, The Bottle That Disappears By Itself

When it comes to sustainability in the world of product design, one of the many aspects that we need to focus on is packaging. The most harmful impact on the environment is created by all those plastic packages which, paradoxically, while the content inside rots after a few days, take several decades to deteriorate.

Starting from this observation, the Swedish design studio Tomorrow Machine has worked extensively to develop packaging solutions that replicate the life cycle of fresh products. In collaboration with the global juice company Eckes Granini and their premium brand Brämhults, in 2023, the studio developed GoneShells, a research project exploring a bio-based packaging material made from potato starch.

The GoneShells bottle is made of an innovative biodegradable material that challenges our conventional idea of how packaging can be designed. Inspired by how nature protects its contents, the project explores a material designed to decompose without relying on industrial recycling processes. Similar to fruit peel, the packaging was conceived to follow a short lifecycle and offer different possibilities for degradation.

Going into detail, the biodegradable packaging material is made from potato starch, with the concept exploring different ways in which the material could break down after use. The bottle was designed to be peeled, allowing the material to be eaten, home-composted or dissolved in water. Rather than simply being discarded, the concept proposes a packaging system designed to disappear after fulfilling its purpose.

“With a bottle designed to be torn apart after it has been used – by peeling it like a fruit, the idea is that oneself can speed up the decomposition process. When you break the packaging and put it in contact with water, a natural reaction starts to break down the bottle immediately – and that’s how we created a bottle with the ability to disappear by itself,” says Anna Glansén, founder at Tomorrow Machine. 

“By developing a material with the ability to break down fast and easily in different ways, the objective is to create less strain on both the environment and recycling systems, as well as reducing problems associated with packaging materials ending up in nature and oceans,” adds Maria Glansén, Design director at Tomorrow Machine.

Supported by the strategic innovation programme BioInnovation, a joint venture by Vinnova, Formas and Swedish Energy Agency and with expertise from RISE Research Institute of Sweden and F&B Happy, the project explored the development and testing of the material and its potential applications.

The research showed potential for several food packaging applications, while also highlighting challenges in meeting the requirements for juice packaging. This makes GoneShells an interesting example of how material innovation can involve both new possibilities and technical limitations, particularly when developing alternatives to conventional packaging materials.

GoneShells explores the possibility of replacing fossil-based materials in beverage and food packaging through a different approach to material design. Rather than proposing a single ready-to-market solution, the project invites us to question how packaging could be designed around the lifecycle of its contents – and what happens to the material once that purpose has been fulfilled.

Learn more at www.goneshells.com