There was no need for plastic at the London Marathon after 200,000 water bottles were replaced by “pods” that are both edible and biodegradable. These water pods are called “Ooho!” and they are made out of seaweed by Skipping Rocks Lab of London. Simply biting into the pod releases the water inside, and the outer seaweed cover is light and tasteless so it can be swallowed.  The pod can also be safely thrown away if you do not want to eat it, as it biodegrades in a matter of weeks, as opposed to plastic bottles which take hundreds of years.

“We use seaweed as the building blocks for the Ooho. But we remove all the green stuff and the smelly stuff so that it is clean with no taste,” explained Rodrigo Garcia Gonzalez, one of Skipping Rocks’ founders. He says that their mission is to “make plastic packaging disappear.” This is just one of a number of innovative products that are being developed to find sustainable alternatives for products that are typically delivered in plastic. It’s hoped that the London Marathon will pioneer the way for other huge events to be supplied with ecologically friendly water supplies.