Karim Rashid has hit the market with a new product: The Iiamo Go, a baby bottle with a built-in warming mechanism.

Rashid, as you can guess, is responsible for the Pepto Bismol-ish pink accents and the wobbly, biomorphic shape. (Which kinda looks like a sex toy, right? I suppose that's fitting--this being, after all, a post-sex toy.)

But the real ingenuity of the bottle is how the warming mechanism works: There aren't any batteries, and there isn't any electricity. Instead, it relies on a simple chemical reaction.

The base of the bottle screws off, allowing you to slot in a warming cartridge. That cartridge is loaded with both water and calcium chloride (a salt that you commonly find in ice-melting pellets). Turning the base breaks the seal that separates the two. As they mix, the calcium chloride absorbs the water and the ensuing chemical reaction sheds heat--enough to warm the bottle in four minutes flat:

The bottle costs $50, and the warming cartridges, which can only be used once, cost about $12 for six.

Iiamo is billing the product as a convenient, portable, and low-carbon alternative to your typical bottle warmer.

We'll buy the convenience and portability--this thing's genius, in that respect. But there's a whiff of greenwashing here. Disposable plastic cartridges won't make Gaia write a love letter to you anytime soon--and the calcium chloride isn't exactly free energy. It takes electricity and gas to manufacture or extract the stuff.

The moral of the story: How often does "green" really involve buying more stuff?

[Via Dezeen]