The New Wave

As consumers, we dispose of tonnes of packaging materials each year,
most of which go into landfills. This is a problem that is finally coming into the
public eye. A lot of our waste includes packaging for different products:
plastic, paper, tin and glass, which take hundreds of years to decompose.
Regrettably, some of the trash ends up in the ocean, killing and harming our
marine life. With this in mind we set out to create a packaging solution that is
sturdy, safe, and sustainable for all of us here on earth.

We chose Coca-Cola to repackage because of their strong commitment
to the environment. The Coca-Cola Company has announced a bold,
ambitious goal to help collect and recycle 100% of the packaging it sells by
2030. This is supported by two key goals – to continue toward making all its
consumer packaging 100% recyclable by 2025 and to have 50% recycled
content in its packaging by 2030.

Inspired, our team sought out to make packaging for this company
using paperboard. Paper and paperboard can be recycled 5-7 times,
depending on the amount of fiber remaining. They have been used to make
egg cartons, and now companies are starting to make this secondary, even
primary packaging. More importantly it is recyclable all across the United
States. We chose to be as efficient as possible with our material to minimize
cost and quantity of paperboard bought/used, while also limiting our
materials to just paperboard and glue. The structure of the 6-pack holder can
be infinitely tessellated to accommodate different quantities of cans. The cans
are secured in the holder by compression between the two rotating circular
cuts around the can. When the 6-pack is lifted the tension from the handle
clamps the holes around the can, conversely when the 6-pack is set down the
grip around the cans relaxes and the cans can be removed.

Aesthetically, we were inspired by an 80s Coca-Cola TV ad featuring
Max Headroom with the slogan “Catch the Wave”. We put our own spin on
the phrase, coining “Catch the New Wave.” Environmental concern,
conversation, and action is here to stay. A whole generation is coming, a new
wave to change the way humans interact with their environment. This spirit of
innovation and environmentalism went into every aspect of our packaging
solution.