Nex Bottles - Creative packaging for beverage bottles

I was brainstorming about ways for packaging to not just be trash. Could there be a reason for users to actually collect the used packaging? Think about a beverage: The bottle costs way more than the actual water and sugar inside. And then it's thrown away. What if the empty bottle was useful?

Here's the idea:

The bottle has snap-in or screw-in insets on the very bottom and along the sides. Thus, if you have two or more bottles, you can connect them together.

This adds functionality to the bottle after the beverage has been consumed. Aggregating more and more beverage bottles will enable the user to build creative sculptures, functional structures; an infinite set of designs can be created, limited only by the number of bottles used and the user's imagination.

The exact dimensions, shape and size of the bottle are arbitrary. The key features of this novel bottle design are as follows:

The cap of the bottle and its corresponding nozzle will be threaded so that they screw together (just in like an ordinary screw-on bottle cap.) Alternatively, there could be snap-ins instead of screw-ins.

The bottle will be manufactured so that it comprises some number of threaded "contacts" (other than that of the cap itself). These contacts will be inset all along the sides of the bottle. There will be one threaded contact on very bottom of the bottle as well. These contacts will be the same as the female screw-in part of the bottle cap, except they will actually be manufactured on the sides and bottom of the bottle itself. Therefore, once the cap is removed, the bottle can be screwed-in (or snapped-into) another like bottle.

For example, the user will be able to take one empty bottle, remove the cap and screw it (or snap it) right into the bottom of another bottle. Then, those bottles can be connected to any of the contact points of a third bottle. Any number of bottles can be attached this way.

The usefulness of the invention is easy to see:
Empty bottles do not have to be recycled; they can be re-purposed immediately by the user.
The user will invest time in the product and share his designs with friends, which will generate word-of-mouth advertising.
Designs will be shared on the internet, generating considerable "buzz" around the product.










Tentatively, I am naming this idea "Nex", kinda like "Connects." I think it sounds catchy.

Personally, I think a beverage sold in a bottle like this would generate a lot of buzz. It's outrageousness is part of its appeal. First of all, it would instantly attract creative people, tinkerers and inventors. Furthermore, it would encourage re-use of trash; even better than recycling! Therefore, it would make headlines as a bizarre new "green" product.

As it catches on, possibility for expansion is endless: different flavors of drink could be sold in bottles of a different configuration. Add-ons. Instructional books. Contests. Word-of-mouth advertising.

Downsides: I've shopped around, and it seems like nobody wants to manufacture a bottle like this. Its multiple pieces and undercuts would require special molds. Very difficult to manufacture, and therefore more expensive.