The encyclopedia · Product & Design · Product decision · 2024
A bottle cap that turns any bottle into a water purifier for 3.7M Colombians
3D-printed corn-starch caps purify water on the go; 1,000 caps gave 10,000+ people clean water and millions of litres a year.
Filsa · Ogilvy Colombia
the move
Over 3.7 million Colombians, particularly the Wayuu in the desert region of La Guajira, had no access to safe drinking water, and traditional purifiers were too costly or complex.
Filsa, a Colombian water-filter brand, worked with Ogilvy Colombia, Baylor International and the Colombian Red Cross to make Filter Caps: small, biodegradable, 3D-printed caps made from sweet-corn-starch resin that mineralise and purify water on the go.
A cap screws onto an ordinary bottle, so a purifier is a single disposable part with no power and no fuss. 1,000 caps were distributed with humanitarian partners, giving over 10,000 people clean water, and the campaign claimed about 1.8 million tonnes of filtered water a year.
why it works
- By making the filter the cap, the cost and complexity drop to near zero.
- It runs on no electricity, so it works where there is no grid.
- Using an ordinary bottle removes the barrier of buying a container.
- The cap is biodegradable, so solving water doesn't create plastic waste.
what transfers
For poor, off-grid users, engineer the filter into something they already own (the cap) instead of selling them a separate machine.
what came after
1,000 Filter Caps reached roughly 10,000 people and the programme claimed about 1.8 million tonnes of filtered water per year. The work won a D&AD Future Impact Pencil, celebrating an early-stage idea with global potential, and a Gold Lion at Cannes in the Sustainable Development Goals category.
references
- Global Ads Spotlight: How a tiny filter made a big splash in Colombia
- Filter Caps (Filsa) - London International Awards 2024
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