Edible wrappers make these snack bars healthy for humans and the planet

Oat bars and protein bars are a great and delicious way to keep your energy up during long exercise routines outdoors. Heck, they can simply be a delicious treat you’d want to take anywhere you feel the hunger. That “anywhere,” however, might be somewhere where there’s no outdoor trash can to throw the wrapper in. You’d think that people would simply keep them in their bags or pockets until they get home, but if everyone actually behaved like that, we would never have a pollution problem in the first place.

Given their size, it’s easy to belittle the effect these small plastic food wrappers would have on the environment, at least until you see them in a pile. Swapping out the plastic or foil materials for biodegradable paper is one solution, but why stop there when you can eat the wrapper itself or do away with it completely? That’s the simple yet ingenious design in this invisible edible wrapper for snack bars that are good for your body as well as the environment.

Designer: This Way Up

There has been a growing trend in the product design industry to shift to more sustainable packaging solutions, from reducing the amount of plastic in boxes to doing away with them completely. In their stead, recycled paper is often used when possible, or at least some other renewable and biodegradable material. You can do that with food wrappers to some extent, depending on how sanitary the material can be, but One Good Thing bars take it one step further by not needing wrappers at all.

The snack and protein bars are still protected, of course, but not in a way that’s visible or even tangible. It instead uses a coating of edible beeswax that doesn’t affect the taste of the square-shaped bars. Even the white label on top is made of edible rice paper, so you can simply rinse the bite-sized snacks and start nibbling away.

This innovative packaging has both sustainable as well as practical benefits. There are no wrappers to throw away, for one, so nothing to pollute the environment. You also don’t need to unwrap the bars, so you can easily just take one out with a single hand and eat away. It’s the perfect design for cyclists or athletes who might not have the luxury of having both hands available when taking a break.

That said, there are still some concerns and issues to be ironed out with this edible wrapper. Given that the wrapper itself is edible, there will be worries about sanitation and contamination in handling, which is why these bars aren’t available in retail yet but are distributed as a “direct-to-your-door” service. It’s not a scalable design yet, but it lays the groundwork for further innovation that won’t put the planet’s health as collateral for your six-pack abs.

The post Edible wrappers make these snack bars healthy for humans and the planet first appeared on Yanko Design.