Client : Phox (acquired by Culligan Water)
What they rarely picture is the bin quietly filling with spent plastic cartridges in the background.
Phox, a small Glasgow team, refused to accept that trade-off. They imagined a system where the cartridge body stayed at home, the media was the only thing that moved and refills slipped through the letterbox instead of piling up in the bin.
Not a cleaner conscience paid for in plastic.
But a system where performance and responsibility share the same cartridge.
Many already did. It sat in the way products were built. Cartridges are sealed, hard to inspect and designed to be discarded on schedule. Refills arrive bulky, take up cupboard space and nudge people back towards whatever is easiest.
Phox had found the hinge. The granules do the real work. The rigid shell simply holds them. Separate those two and the whole model can change.
When the working part and the waste are fused, habit wins.
When you separate them, better behaviour becomes the default.
We designed a refillable unit that opens and closes repeatedly without leaks or mystery parts. Lids feel secure. Seals tolerate wet hands and distracted minds.
We mapped the refill ritual from the moment a pack lands on the doormat to the first poured glass, making every step obvious so users moved from curiosity to confidence in minutes. Prototyping focused on taste, flow rate and lifespan, because if water started tasting flat, people would quietly slide back to disposable cartridges.
Designed for the kitchen counter and the postal system.
So a sustainability story becomes a daily habit.
They still fill the jug and pour the glass. There is no new appliance to find space for. Underneath, the logic has flipped. The cartridge stays in place. The media changes. Letterbox friendly refills cut wasted journeys and packaging. Filter blends can be tuned to local water conditions instead of guessing at a global average.
securing major retail listings and ultimately acquisition by Culligan, the world's largest water treatment company.
The throwaway cartridge finally has a worthy alternative.
