[Image above] Credit: Mashable Deals; YouTube

Do you ever feel guilty about all those water bottles you toss in the trash?

Earth Day is this Saturday, April 22 (as is the March for Science). Let’s consider the impact of our bottled water usage:

Plastic water bottles take more than 1,000 years to biodegrade. If they’re incinerated, they produce toxic fumes. (TheWaterProject.org)

An estimated 1,500 plastic bottles end up in landfills or oceans every second. (TheWorldCounts.com)

In the U.S., at least 50 million plastic bottles are thrown away. (PristinePlanet.com)

3 liters of water are used to package 1 bottle of water. (TheWorldCounts.com)

You can read additional facts here.

Now that I’ve laid a huge guilt trip on you, would you be willing to eat your water container to save the planet?

While a few scientists are conducting ongoing research on alternative forms of packaging, Skipping Rocks Lab, a small start-up in London, has developed an edible water “bottle.” Well, actually it’s more of a spongy sphere.

With the help of a crowdfunding effort, the research team has managed to create a unique way to package water and other liquids in the form of a soft blob. According to the company website, Skipping Rocks Lab’s mission is “to create a waste-free alternative to plastic bottles/cups/plates/you name it.”

The lab’s product is called Ooho and is made of 100% seaweed and plants. The spherical containers are edible, biodegradable, and have a shelf life of just a few days. The company claims they are cheaper than plastic to manufacture and produce 5x less CO 2 and 9x less energy than PET containers.

The company is currently producing small quantities of Ooho for private parties, conferences, and festivals, and plans to eventually mass-produce them. Its crowdfunding effort has already raised more than $1 million, according to an April 13 tweet on its Twitter page.

Watch the video for a glimpse at how we might consume bottled water in the future.

Credit: Mashable Deals; YouTube