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Appropriate Design Solutions for Liquid Soap Packaging in Uganda

From Soap Project Development at Ned.com

Packaging cottage industry scale liquid soap is the challenge. Commercially available bottles are expensive. Recycled water bottles are a smart option, but the availability isn't always assured.

One idea is to package liquid soap in plastic bags or plastic tubes.

Two essential challenges to this method of packaging are:

1. A valve system for dispensing soap.
2. Mechanical protection of the bag.

Brainstorming solutions

Valve

Rubber tubing can be clamped.

I don't know where the legality of plastic bags now stands in Uganda. I suppose that's something I should get clear about before imagining it something worthwhile to pursue as a packaging idea. Any leads on that subject would be appreciated. One thought about plastic tubing was that it's not technically a bag and therefore might be legal.

The question is whether to imagine the bag hung with the spout and valve at the bottom, or to have the packaging stand up and be poured with the spout and valve at the top?

Mechanical Protection of Bags

Banana fiber envelopes-- Something I like about the banana fiber is that it's strong yet flexible the upside is that it could be squeezed to deliver the soap, the downside is it is harder to make it stand like a bottle.

Something of the concept of packaging soap in plastic bags is rather like bag-in-a-box technology. One point is that liquids in a bag may not be strong enough in the bag alone, the box adds strength capacity to the system. I have emphasized mechanical protection of the bags, against puncture for example, but this more systematic view of the bag and covering functioning as a system is the best way to see it I think

In the systems we're most familiar the placement of valves is aided by the rigidity of the box. I hadn't been thinking of boxes per se, but again the problem of the valve is part of a system of packaging, where the valve may relate strongly to the outer covering of the system.

One way of making a bag in a box sort of bottle is to have a paper tube rather like is found on a toilet paper roll. These could be made from paper wrapped around a round dowel. To make the container strong and colorful, fabric couls cover the paper tube. The advantage of the tube is that it could stand upright, and the top could then be just a spout without a cap or valve.

Stuff To Look Into

Paper Pulping and Molding;

Egg cartons are often made of formed paper pulp. While not very water proof such technology can be done on a relatively small scale to provide a rigid "bottle"

Sealing polyethylene bags

Bag sealers:

Hand held sealers here and there

Woven Basket approaches:

Weave from recycled stuff like at this place or these out of potato chip bags