Heineken needs to bring back the brick-bottle!
Heineken’s website boasts that they have a new bottle design which they describe as “taller, sleeker and more handsome.” Apparently they want their bottles to look like James Bond. (I think they even print 007 on the bottles now?) But maybe they should have went in a different direction: short, square and stack-able.
When Alfred Heineken– the founder’s grandson– visited the impoverished island of Curacao in the 1960s, he noticed two things: his empty green bottles littered the streets; a lack of infrastructure and building materials. So Fred attempted to find a way to solve both problems at once: create a square, stack-able bottle that could be used as bricks for building infrastructure in low-income areas. Not only could the bricks be used to build houses, but also the infrastructure needed to collect and reuse glass and plastic bottles– something unavailable in most impoverished areas at the time.
So that’s what Fred did. Creating such a versatile design was difficult at first: you need a protruding neck to drink from but this makes it impossible to stack. Along with the help of his architect however, Fred came up with a workable design. The Heineken World Bottle, or WOBO, was rectangular and had interlocking grooves so it could be easily stacked with mortar and cement. Eventually in 1963, Heineken made roughly 50,000 of these bottles available for commercial use.
”the bricks could essentially turn the problem of alcohol abuse into a solution for homelessness. Who said drinking never solved anything
It would take about 1,000 bottles to make a tiny 10 x 10 foot structure; but fortunately (and unfortunately) alcohol use and abuse is relatively high in low-income areas and developing nations. So the bricks could essentially turn the problem of alcohol abuse into a solution for homelessness. Who said drinking never solved anything?!
Unfortunately, none of Heineken’s prototypes made it to market. The design was deemed “effeminate;” which judging by the company’s description of it’s current bottle, (sleek, tall and handsome) is still a quality they are determined to avoid. But more importantly, the brick design was more costly to produce: it took thicker glass to hold weight when stacked. Sadly, the only structures built with the bricks stand near the Heineken museum in Amsterdam.
In 2008 Heineken attempted to bring back the WOBO project by designing a cube-shaped bottle. Unfortunately the cube-shape was only for shipping and novelty purposes– the bottles could not be stacked as bricks. I guess Heineken thought drinking from a cube would be a hot seller for consumers who want to look more ironic.
I think this design is worth a revisit. Now, everyone is looking for new ways to repurpose their potential trash and recycle. Hipsters could build trendy urban gardens or tiny houses out of old Heineken bottles. A hashtag could be started and everyone could post pictures of what they are building! Instead of “effeminate” we could call the bottle “gender neutral.” Oh yeah, and the impoverished areas could maybe seek to benefit, too. Either way, Fred was clearly way ahead of his time with this idea.
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Randi Nord lives in Pontiac, Michigan and is a journalist for the Pontiac Tribune.