One of the most overlooked objects is the plastic water bottle. It is constantly referred to as a waste of resources (which it is), but that’s about all the attention it gets. Nobody looks at its design, it’s multiple love-handles for easy gripping. How the cap is smaller, so that when it’s mass-produced it uses less plastic overall. Who notices these things?
Designers are often given a hard job. How do they make something so mass-produced better? How would they possibly improve a design that’s been pondered over for so long? They consider shape, form, how it’ll be used, how it’ll end up. Everything is considered at least once, written on a post-it, stuck on a board.
Water bottles are now shapelier than before. This is to help facilitate the ability to drink water while running or walking, or to increase one’s ability to hold on to the water bottle. When the water bottle was once just a cylinder, it now has curves rivaling a woman with an hourglass figure. Is this supposed to lure new customers to its shape? Or are they really conserving plastic by making the bottle walls thinner?
With each new design comes new problems. Many users of these bottles find that it’s almost impossible to open the water bottle without squeezing or spilling at least a fourth of the water, and that they crinkle loudly whenever one accidentally squeezes the bottle too hard.
Objects like these are constantly improving. Many examples can be found: metal water bottles. Not only do they reduce the plastic waste produced, they’re reusable and exceedingly more fashionable—just look at all the colors possible!
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