An idea long overdue: Shell announces cask oil
Shell's Ecobox oil cask is easier to store and transport than plastic bottles -- and environmentally friendlierWhy did it take us so long? Shell has come up with one of those ideas that seems embarrassingly obvious once someone else has come up with it: cask motor oil. What makes it more embarrassingly obvious is that the idea has been sitting under our noses, on Aussie dinner tables and kitchen benches, for five decades.
Shell announced its Ecobox amid modest fanfare in early June at the Michelin Challenge Bibendum 2010 in Rio de Janiero. Like the wine cask, it comprises a cardboard carton lined with a bladder, in this case made of a high-slip plastic allowing the oil to drain quickly leaving little residual behind.
Being a neat box, it's easier to store than the conventional plastic bottles (pictured), which makes it easier to handle right down the supply chain, from factory to retailer. The cardboard carton is also fully recyclable, so Shell claims the change in packaging generates about a tenth of the landfill of its equivalent in plastic bottles.
The company's release also says "the Ecobox pump system provides motor oil delivery that helps improve many operational tasks associated with dispensing oil using individual quarts". No further information is available on what that means. Shell's local operation was unable to give details of when or even if the Ecobox might appear in Australia.
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