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Are you ready to recycle your sandwich bags?

By Rain Noe - March 17, 2010

in Object Culture

Axion Polymers, a UK-based company that makes high-grade polymers that are 100% recycled from refrigerators, TVs and game consoles, has announced the winner of their first-ever Green Product Design Competition. Entrants were asked to come up with a product that used their material and would somehow help the environment, and top prize went to Gary Poolman of Aphid Design for this odd-looking device:

So what is it?

[The] 'Wazzon' is a clever gadget for quickly drying plastic sandwich bags so they can be washed and re-used. Designed to be made from Axion's 100 percent recycled plastic Axpoly compound, the injection-moulded, three-pronged Wazzon can also be used to dry other types of bags and items, such as rubber gloves.

...They believe the potential UK market size for his invention would be nearly 6 million. This figure is based on an estimated combination of young professionals making their own sandwiches (30 percent), and schoolchildren (8 percent) having sandwiches made for them.

I'm a fan of Axion Polymers' recycling supply chain and I applaud Poolman's idea, but I must admit I'm not very confident the public will buy this and begin recycling their sandwich bags (at least not without, um, a more compelling rendering). What do you think, is it just me?

via recycling portal

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Steve Portigal

14 years ago

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Kinda of a me-too comment but felt compelled to share the same reaction i) we already do this (spoons make great bag holders and ii) why buy a piece of plastic to do this?!
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Philippe

14 years ago

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Not to mention the fact that we don't really need another piece of plastic (recycled or not, it still needs to be manufactured) to dry plastic bags. A tall glass or standing cutlery should work fine too.
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Jason

14 years ago

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Can it hold an egg on top? If so, Im buying it for that purpose only.
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Jennifer Moline, PsPrint

14 years ago

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Yeah, a device to dry one bag a time seems pretty silly. I use my dishwasher as a drying rack for everything. Nice concept, though, and at least it might get people talking about recycling sandwich bags!
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jeff b

14 years ago

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same here as Sinan, drying rack + random long pointy thing sticking up serves as a drying rack, but we usually just wash and reuse the large ziplock bags, depending on what they were used for. plus i hate washing plastic. we've switched to pyrex for most of our lunch containers.

I don't see 6 million people taking their used bags home w/ them from school/work to wash and dry them at home.
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Kristin

14 years ago

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Wonder what the US market would be like for this. Broke twenty-somethings in NYC may be willing to invest (depending on the price point) to keep from repeatedly tacking Ziploc charges onto the grocery bill. Of course by "broke twenty-somethings" I mean me. Would much rather spend the $5 of plastic bags on food!
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Sinan

14 years ago

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We actually do wash and reuse most of our sandwich bags but we just dry them up in the drying rack hanging over, and kept open by, a ladle or a serving spoon. The idea of reusing those bags is great but never thought a product was needed to realize it.
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Tumble

14 years ago

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http://www.lehmans.com/store/Natural_Goods___Recycled_and_Reusable___Plastic_Bag_and_Bottle_Dryer___1093780

Made by the Amish.
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