plastic-free soy sauce fish dropper decomposes in weeks instead of years

Fiber-made soy sauce fish dropper by heliograf

Heliograf and Vert Design create Holy Carp!, a plastic-free soy sauce fish dropper that decomposes in weeks instead of years. In normal conditions, it can break down in soil in around four to six weeks, since it is made from bagasse, the fibrous by-product of sugar production, and other plant fibers that readily decompose. The soy sauce fish dropper can hold up the liquid only for up to 48 hours because it is not meant to stay in the environment but to go back to its roots and fertilize plants. The dropper is shaped like a fish to give a familiar feeling for the user, and customers can lightly squeeze the container, preferably in the middle part, to release the soy sauce.

One important difference that the design team wants to highlight is that these new soy sauce fish droppers are not filled in a factory. They are filled with soy inside the restaurant, making the sauce fresh. The restaurant can also choose different sauces, not only soy, and because of the small hole just below the fish’s eye, the customers are able to control the flow of the liquid sauce coming out of the container. The Holy Carp! container is also bigger than the normal plastic one, and this is intentional because customers tend to take more than one plastic fish, even if one is enough. A bigger container, which can hold more liquid, can avoid this behavior, allowing for less waste created.

all images courtesy of Heliograf

Feedback from restaurants shape the design of the container

Studios Heliograf and Vert Design collaborated with sushi restaurants during the design process, which gave feedback on size, storage, filling, sealing, and speed of service for the final look of the soy sauce fish dropper. The production material choice comes from the designers’ earlier experience, where they used bagasse pulp for packaging, so they already understood how to shape and form it. The design team says they ‘looked outside the box’ for years but realized that solving the problem is by looking inside the box. 

Several restaurants have used small plastic fish containers for soy sauce that are used for a few minutes and then thrown away, contributing to the growing plastic waste every year. They stay in the environment for years and can break into microplastics. Marine animals can then eat them, and they can return to us through food. Holy Carp! hopes to replace these with a plastic-free container that works in the same way but without the long-term problem.

the design doubles as a container for other sauces

restaurants can fill the container with fresh soy sauce

the container can hold the liquid for up to 48 hours

restaurants can give out stickers to prevent leakage

customers can control the flow of the sauce coming out of the dropper

the container is bigger than the usual plastic dropper

the single-use plastic dropper contributes to the growing waste every year

different sizes and designs of plastic droppers

project info:

name: Holy Carp!

design: Heliograf, Vert Design | @heliograf.design, @vertdesignstudio

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