To teach how to push air out of plastic bottles and to develop good habits as early as possible, PepsiCo Poland created a game called Up Up Hippo. A smartphone game controlled by… a plastic bottle. By squeezing a plastic bottle children help Hippo move. They pump up his flat tire, release balloons, blow on his sail or let him fly. All to fulfil his recycling mission. The only thing they have to do is squeeze a plain plastic bottle. Or a few. No special devices or connections are needed.

We used sound recognition technology enhanced by a very suggestive design elements. All to create an illusion that the air pushed from a plastic bottle interact with the game character. To make things even airy we used music performed on real balloons. The tests were performed a few days before and on the Earth Day. Since kids went crazy we filmed the tests and used it for communication. The app is available for both iOS and Android (5.0 or newer). The update is being developed.

Each played game equals at least one properly crushed bottle. However, kids just love Up Up Hippo and play it all over again. During the tests every plastic bottle was crushed and flattened to the very last blow. An average kid, when allowed to, spends 30 minutes with the game, crushing over 50 plastic bottles. According to studies, only 68% of adults declare that they dispose of plastic containers properly (TNS Poland for Polish Ministry of Environment, November 2014). So far, 100% of kids that had contact with the game declared that they crush plastic bottles before throwing them away. But they didn’t just declare it. They did it!

The sound recognition technology was used in a completely new way to enhance creative output. We combined technology and air-inspired design to create an illusion that makes children think it is "real" air from the bottle that drives the game. Even adults, who realise what is happening, still like to believe that air from the bottle can make the game character move.

Proper recycling is hard to teach. Many still throw away plastic bottles without flattening them. Uncrushed bottles take up to 80% more space in the trash. This makes waste transport frequent and expensive since trucks carry air instead of garbage. In order to tackle the problem, PepsiCo Poland decided to carry out an educational program directed to children, hoping that adults will follow. Since ordinary campaigns promoting bottle crushing and recycling don’t seem work, we had to bring an idea that not just talks the problem but actually solves it, making people crush bottles properly.