Clever packaging uses wasted space in coke crates to ship medicine
You can buy a Coke pretty much anywhere on Earth. Thanks to a vast network of local suppliers, Coca-Cola has almost completely solved distribution, getting its product into every nook and cranny where commerce reaches. There are places in the world where it’s easier to get a Coke than clean water. In the 1980s, Berry was an aid worker in Zambia, and when he looked at Coke’s success, he saw an opportunity.
“Child mortality was very high and the second-biggest killer was diarrhea, which is simple to prevent,” he says. The standard treatment is oral rehydration solution, or ORS, which is essentially salt, sugar and water. “I had the idea of transporting ORS through the Coca-Cola system.”
In every crate of Coca Cola, there's a bunch of wasted space between the necks of the bottles. Berry decided to make good use of it and developed the AirPod, a packaging solution special designed to fit in this unused space. In its current test run in Zambia, the pods contain an anti-diarrhea kit, but the possibilities are only limited by what you can cram in that pack. And since people crave Coke a little more enthusiastically than they do anti-diarrhea medication, both the goods will keep flowing.
Source: gizmodo.comAdded: 6 May 2013
