After Redcycle collapsed back in late 2022 I was uncomfortable with just tossing our soft plastics into the red bin, so I started to stockpile them in the shed around the side of our house. Then, a bit over a year ago, we signed up with RecycleSmart, through our local council, where we could get two shopping bags of recyclable materials (including soft plastics) collected every 4 to 6 weeks. We have been availing ourselves of this service which is paid for by council. Using it, we have been reducing our stockpile considerably.
Our bag of soft plastics
One thing with the soft plastics is that they can take up quite a bit of volume, for not a lot of mass, and so were taking up quite a bit of space in the shed. I had seen adverts for a gadget that could compress the soft plastic waste, reducing its volume and I wondered if I could come up with something that could do the same thing.
And it seems I can!
It is a combination of two sizes of PVC pipe with associated caps that I have dubbed the "Bag-Pipe"!
I did not have any of the bits needed to make it in my stockpile (except for the 100mm diameter end cap), but if you do, or can access second hand PVC pipe this would make things cheaper and easier.
To make the Bag-Pipe I used:
A length of 90mm diameter PVC pipe,
A length of 100mm diameter PVC pipe
1 x 100mm end cap
2 x 90mm end caps
The outer tube is on the right, and the inner compressing piston is on the left
And that really is about it!
I cut both pipes to 340mm long, although that dimension is not critical, it just works out to be a good size for using bread bags as a liner, and the end caps are not glued on, just pressed on. If you have to buy in your pipe in 1 metre lengths all up it will cost you about $35 for the pipe, but this will be enough to make three Bag-Pipes.
To Operate
Place the 100mm pipe on a hard surface, with the cap on the bottom.
Put a bread bag into the 100mm pipe and press it down using the 90mm pipe so that t reaches the bottom of the 100mm pipe and there is 20mm to 30mm overlap of the bread bag (or whatever bag you wish to use) liner so you can hold it with one hand while putting the soft plastic items into the 100mm pipe.
Bread bag inserted, some soft plastics compressed inside
While holding the overlap outside the 100mm pipe, place items into the bread bag/100mm pipe and press down with the 90mm pipe to compact them. Repeat until the soft plastics are about 20mm down from the top of the pipe.
Using the inner piston to compress the plastics into the bread bag
To get the bread bag filled with soft plastics out of the 100mm pipe, remove the bottom cap (this was on pretty tight, so I used a cross pein hammer to tap it off) then push the bread bag out the bottom of the 100mm pipe.
Bottom cap removal hammer!
Then it is just a case of tying off the top of the bread bag and it is ready to store or recycle. I found I was easily able to compress 300g of soft plastics into the Bag-Pipe.
End product
There are also benefits from compacting your soft plastics after they leave your place:
- Space Efficiency: Compacting soft plastics significantly reduces their bulk, allowing for more material to be stored in the same space.
- Reduced Transportation Costs and Emissions: Less volume means fewer trips for collection and transport, saving on fuel and reducing carbon emissions.
- Improved Recycling Process: Compacting can make it easier to process and sort soft plastics at recycling facilities.
- Environmental Benefits: preventing soft plastics from ending up in landfills or the ocean, compacting helps reduce plastic pollution and its associated environmental impacts.
So there you have it! This is a quick (took me less than an hour), easy and inexpensive but very useful project that can have space benefits for you, but also environmental benefits for the planet.
When not in use, the inner piston can be stored inside the outer pipe
