Have you been looking for a better plastic packaging alternative? Why don’t you try the Soapack by Mi Zhou?
Our oceans are currently choking with plastic. The same piles up our landfills, too. Apparently, among the significant culprits are the plastic packaging coming from toiletry and cosmetic products. In fact, people throw about 552 million shampoo bottles every year. Plus, only 1 in 5 people would recycle bedroom items consistently.
Fortunately, several eco-conscious designers now work to develop a better plastic packaging alternative. Among these people that are trying to reduce our plastic footprint is Mi Zhou. She is a student at the Central Saint Martins Material Futures under a master’s degree program. With an intelligent mind, Mi Zhou has been able to create jars and bottles made of soap. And, she called them Soapack.
The Soapack by Mi Zhou has a collection of products, all cast from vegetable oil-based soap. So, these would just melt away once you no longer need them. You could be surprised to know that even the “paper” instructions would dissolve in water!
Moreover, the Mi Zhou has used a thin line of beeswax to line the bottles, just to make them waterproof. This lining also prevents the leaking of liquid contents. As Zhou herself explains:
“It is designed to invite the user to use it or even deconstruct it and make it eventually disappear.”
The plastic packaging alternative for cosmetics is genuinely a genius craft. Plus, it’s definitely a zero-waste material. Not only is the Soapack sustainable, but it’s also stylish.
You would also be glad to know that each translucent bottle has delicate stoppers. They also got glass-like patterns in shapes of the classic perfume bottles we’ve grown to love. Mi Zhou further speaks about the Soapack:
“I found that compared to shampoo bottles, we are more likely to keep perfume bottles which mostly are made of glass and look gorgeous. Even if the perfume is used up, we keep the bottles since they are too beautiful to be discarded.”
With dyes coming from pigments of minerals, flowers, and other plants, the Soapack containers boast of having soft shades. Yup, they come with those beautiful pastel gradients!
Zhou has high hopes for her remarkable invention. She’d like to think that her plastic packaging alternative would help consumers rethink of the environmental impact of cosmetics. Explaining the advocacy, she further says:
“We are living in a period of transition where we are encouraged to act ‘sustainably,’ in situations where there are few successful options provided. We do need to encourage people to use alternatives to respect our environment better but not compromising on user experience.”
If you wish to read more about this eco-friendly project, check out the Central Saint Martins Material Futures catalog.
The Soapack by Mi Zhou — a Central Saint Martins master student — is a promising sustainable set of jars and bottles, which she created from soap.
Zhou has cast each of the Soapack bottles from a vegetable oil-based soap. So, it just melts away once you no longer need it.
Dyed from the pigments of plants, flowers, and minerals, the Soapack containers display pretty pastel gradients in soothing shades.
Surprisingly, the “paper” instructions also dissolve in water!
