Does it bother you that you can’t get all of the liquid out of the bottom of a hand-pump-equipped container? Well, the folks at Pack Flow Concepts think that it should. According to them, such containers don’t dispense up to 15 percent of the ketchup, shampoo, soap or other liquid stored inside of them. That’s why Pack Flow is developing the Zero Waste Twist Dispenser.
The prototype device consists of a cylindrical outer shell, inside of which is a disc-shaped platform. As the user presses a button on the lid of the dispenser (which would ultimately have a spout built into it), that disc incrementally ratchets its way up from the bottom of the inside of the shell – each press moves it up a little more. No batteries or other power source are required.
Inside the container, resting on top of the disc, would be a soft, flexible packet of the liquid product. As the disc moved up, it would force the liquid from that packet, and out of the dispenser’s spout.
According to Pack Flow, not only would this allow consumers to get almost every drop of the product that they paid for, but it would also minimize spoilage, as the unused liquid wouldn’t be as exposed to the air.
The idea is that the first time someone bought a certain liquid product, they would buy a packet of it and one of that product’s custom Zero Waste Dispensers. Every time they needed more, however, they would just buy packets and put them in the existing dispenser. Pack Flow’s Steve Derby told us that such a system might be about 10 to 15 percent more expensive than traditional packaging for the first purchase of the product, but that the cost would be more than made up for by subsequently only buying the inexpensive packets – and by not wasting as much of the liquid.
Additionally, the packets would be compostable, so they theoretically wouldn’t stick around for too long after being discarded.
The company is currently looking for corporate customers interested in adopting the technology. Another company, ANYWAY Spray, is offering a spray bottle with a special intake tube designed not to let any liquid go unused.
Source: Pack Flow Concepts
Kind of like this: http://youtu.be/dlGvIq5CAn8
This might be a fantastic product for fast food restaurants that use pump dispensers though.
Problem I can see is one of basic hygeine- pump spouts are hard to clean properly, and they are open to the air at the outlet end. So I would be concerned, particularly with sauces, etc, that they would never be cleaned out. Egg-based sauces, such as mayonnaise, are particularly risky.
I do share with the designers the annoyance at not being able to get at the last bit of product. Normally with things like anti-bacterial hand wash I balance the old bottle on top of the new to get the last dregs out, then fill it with warm water to wash my hands with. You used to be able to buy handwash in the UK in pump dispenser and pumpless refills but they seem to have stopped doing that, so you end up throwing away a perfectly good pump.