I jump at any chance to save the environment with my actions but sometimes, these alternatives can be a tad inconvenient.
Take reusable bottles, for instance. While you definitely cut down on plastic waste, hanging on to them can be a bear! Think about the moment after your last swig of your favorite beverage. What to do? Yep, stuff it in your bag. Now you’ve got a little less useful space and a tad of extra weight to tote around to boot! An when you get home, you guessed it, you got to give the bottle a good old-fashion scrubbing, but you can handle that, right? But what if there was a bottle that could make reuse more manageable and do it in style! The DiFOLD Origami Bottle is just that product.
DiFOLD was created specifically to address these little nuisances which come with owning reusable bottles. The bottle is made from an eco-friendly polymer blend, affectionately dubbed “BBHPTLOHP”. That’s short for Biobased, High Performance, Thermoplastic, Light-weight, Orderless, Hygenic, Polymer (phew!). The novelty of this product is how the design team has made uses of the BBHPTLOHP to create a collapsible structure. The thermoplastic polymer recipe of the DiFOLD allows it to be folded down and extended repeatedly with material fatigue or failure. The collapsed mode is perfect for saving that coveted space inside your bag or pack.
As for cleanability, the DiFOLD looks to make the grade. The origami-style folds and creases are all external, living the inside of the product super smooth for easier cleaning.
When unfurled, the DiFOLD architecture is cylindrical which is common to most regular water bottles. The body of the 25oz (750ml) version is 8.3” (21cm) tall when fully extended. Stainless steel (the heaviest components of the bottle) is used for the closure, both cap, and threaded collar. No worries about leaks here!
The real magic starts once you finish your drink.
By pressing the bottle at certain key points, you can fold the DiFOLD into a pocket-sized sachet that fits nicely in your bag or your pocket. The folded bottle measures 2.2” (5.5cm), so it shouldn’t take up much space at all. Whenever you need to refill your bottle with a drink, simply expand the DiFOLD by pulling on it from both ends.
The foldable nature of the bottle can be helpful in the office and in school, but where it really shines is during outdoor trips. Since carrying space is at a premium, you want to use it as wisely as possible. Having a collapsible bottle like this one will definitely ease your problems of space management and weight distribution.
Thanks to the apt selection of the BBHPTLOHP (Biobased, High Performance, Thermoplastic, Light-weight, Orderless, Hygenic, Polymer) material which makes up the DiFOLD, the bottle is pretty sturdy as well. It can survive a ton of abuse and unless you press on the specific folding creases, the DiFOLD won’t collapse on itself. As an added bonus, the bottle is also dishwasher and bottlebrush safe.
It took two years to develop DiFOLD from the initial sketch, through CAD and into tooling. The design process was highly iterative especially owing to the material needing to do the heavy lifting. Each revision of the origami pattern sequence moved the design team closer to arriving at a suitable structure. In the end, an array of trapezoid shapes bisected and creased yielded the perfect collapsible structure and visual appeal you see on the final bottle.
The DiFOLD Origami Bottle was successfully funded back in July 2020 on Indiegogo, and in an additional campaign on Kickstarter. Hop over to either site to find more information and details on how you might get your hands on one!
