Psychology of packaging and water consumption

A study published in the International Journal of Retail & Distribution Management pointed out that the visual appearance of packaging is the most important indicator of quality and can help customers build trust towards the brand and even give it a try, despite never having heard of it before.

Bottled water is no longer solely a thirst-quenching liquid, but an opportunity for brands to consider the concept of sustainability and offer customers alternatives to environmentally-damaging plastic bottles. Speaking of which, 7.7 billion plastic water bottles are consumed each year in the UK alone and the industry is worth well over £2 billion per year.

It has also been discovered that 90% of single use plastic water bottles were contaminated with microscopic plastic particles, including nylon or polypropylene and are responsible for having a negative impact on both climate change and humans’ health. According to the Greener Ideal, by producing single use plastic water bottles we release almost 3 million tonnes of CO2 into the atmosphere and consume 17 million barrels of oil. This is enough to fuel around 1.3 million cars or 190.000 homes.

However, brands such as CanO Water, Tapped Birch Water and Aqua Esse came up with innovative ideas to minimise the carbon dioxide emission of bottled water by proposing aluminium, paper and glass-made containers. But what are the implications of giving up on plastics and approaching more of a sustainable water drinking habit? The PDD team has conducted human-centred research on how these can alter our drinking experience and perception of taste.
Ella Ross-Jewell – Consultant – Human Factors & Usability, Joe Slatter – Technical Design Intern, Monique Spoerri – Consultant – Industrial Design and Norihiko Inoue – Senior Consultant – Industrial Design took part in this research and this is what we discovered:Find out whether bio-plastics are a sustainable choice or just a rubbish alternative to normal plastics