WHOLLY SHRINK! WE’VE GOT AN IDEA
LIKE MANY, WE HAD A PLASTIC ITCH
At home we’ve never liked plastic laying around in the kitchen, or anywhere else in the house for that matter. However, lately it feels like we are drowning under soft plastic. Probably a consequence of working and lunching from and at home. Whilst most soft plastic could be recycled in our local supermarket, it still took a lot of space. It also needed a dedicated location in the house, and for us it was awkwardly fitted at the bottom of a cupboard, difficult to access and mostly forgotten which led to bits of plastic ending in the generic bin… and therefore in landfill.
FROM A DIY SOLUTION…
We needed a destination for that plastic so we reused a plastic bottle by cutting the top opening off. We then used the cylinder that was left as the new soft plastic destination for the house. By leaving that cylinder on the bench top, it acted as a reminder to put the bits of soft plastic there (rather than in the generic bin). And we re-used plastic bags to line the cylinder. We were amazed by the amount that could be compacted inside. Suddenly we could lodge up to 2 weeks worth of soft plastic in that tiny space. The benchtop and cupboards were free again. But then when we were going to stores that are part of the RedCycle program, we noticed a lot of times that the bins dedicated for soft plastic were overflowing. We could see there was a problem and thought that if we all compacted plastic, surely it would help.
…TO A PURPOSE BUILT HOME COMPACTOR
In order to help others to make it a habit to compact and return soft plastic, we needed a dedicated tool. Nathan is a packaging engineer and he bought into the idea immediately. He came up with great designs that we started to test with friends and family. The feedback was great and we decided to lodge a patent and create the Wholly Shrink! entity.
HOW IT WORKS
The Wholly Shrink! home compactor is made of 100% recycled plastic. It allows the user to store and compact soft plastic into the device by using their fingers or a plunger. The device can be placed on a work top (preferably) because it acts as a trigger to remind the dwelling occupants about plastic recycling. It's a unique beautiful design and a talking point. The device itself is a container that can be opened in the middle to allow compacted plastics to be removed with little to no force. It is designed to work with any plastic bag that acts as a liner. It works best with liners of 30 - 50cm long but can in theory work with any bag that isn't too wide. The device has an opening on the top that is wide enough to receive different types of plastics and it is equipped with a top "ring" that holds the plastic liner bag in place when soft plastic is inserted inside the container.
THE DIFFERENT OPTIONS
If you want something a little more classy than a cut off plastic bottle cylinder, we’ve created a purpose built home compactor for soft plastic. We call it the Wholly Shrink!
It allows the users to compact soft plastics with their own fingers through the opening at the top or to use a plunger/cap to help with compressing.
The base device can be used on its own and can be pre-ordered on this website or (in the future) received from one of our partners. Soon users will also be able to purchase additional items. They will be able to improve the style of the Wholly Shrink! by adding an overall cover. Plungers will also be available to help with compacting even more.
We are also working on a larger Wholly Shrink! to fit big pieces of plastic (such as large dog food bags for example).
