While designers are battling with the notion of how to minimise packaging waste, Aaron Mickelson from New York's Pratt Institute proposes to get rid of it altogether. Packaging is the largest source of trash in our landfills and The Disappearing Package project provides five zero-waste solutions to the ongoing problem.

He re-imagines the packaging of key household products, that ‘disappear’ completely after use, or become the product itself.

Tide’s laundry pods are stitched up together and can be torn off one by one. They are also printed with water-soluble ink, just like Nivea’s soap bar. It’s packaging also dissolves completely in the shower.

Twinning’s tea bags are held together in the shape of accordion and are pulled off individually. With the GLAD trash bags, the marketing is printed directly onto the last bag, leaving no waste behind. And last but not least, OXO’s storage containers have the brand and product info printed on them directly with water-soluble ink.

Despite the fact that each object presents its own manufacturing or distributional challenges, Aaron’s approach shows that simple design is often best, even when dealing with the complex issue of product sustainability.