Ad man Peter Martin is learning how to become a green innovator.
Snap into your smoothie. Enjoy the fruity taste. Throw away the little security top that lets you know no-one has tampered with your drink.
Hang on. What if we are all chucking them out? We'll end up with a pile of 400 billion bits of plastic a year.
Three years ago, Peter Martin hit on an idea. What if you turned the clips into a tie you could use every day for the bags in your kitchen?
His re-design improved on two existing patents by creating a hole in the two-gram piece of plastic that goes round the top of a bottle or container. He then logged onto the Intellectual Property Office website and wrote himself a two-paragraph patent, which gave him the confidence to go to the international invention show at Geneva, where he won a major award.
Back in Ross-on-Wye, his regional development agency gave him a £5,000 grant to have his patent professionally drafted. It turned into a 16-page document that protects the concept of re-using a previously useless piece of packaging. "It prevents anyone else sticking a hole in a piece of plastic round the top of a bottle," says Martin, who was a creative director in his own advertising agency until he became an inventor.
He is calling his clip the "RE:tie" and has taken out a trademark. "It creates a genuine green benefit for supermarkets and packagers. When anyone buys a bottle, they get a free clip and can rest a little easier about destroying the planet."
He is hoping that the RE:tie will be the first brand of many which his company, Junkk, will launch to find a second life for packaging once it has fulfilled its original purpose of getting products into consumers' trolleys. Reductions in the use of plastic bags at check-outs show the way, he believes, and he would like to see the RE:tie appear everywhere as a point-of-sale benefit on smoothies and bottles of milk.
As a creative director, he struggles to see the downsides. "It needs no extra resources, it is free to the public, it is easier to open, it cuts waste and improves a brand’s commitment to recycling."
Yet so far, he is making slow progress in selling licences. "You have to conduct a weird dance between the supermarkets, the brands and the manufacturers. They will put up a lot of negatives. You have to know your commercial case inside out."
Since 2006, Martin has learnt more about waste legislation and CSR (corporate and social responsibility) than he ever expected. On reflection, he would have found a university earlier to verify his technique.
He would also spend more money on making a prototype. "It won’t make any difference to manufacturers. They have thousands of different versions. But when you speak to someone at a trade show, particularly anyone in the media, you have 15 seconds to show them how it works before they lose interest."
Next time, he would also set a budget and a schedule for developing his IP. "You want to keep your options open, until you know the orders are coming. The RE:tie is now protected in ten different countries, which I have funded out of my savings. It is better to set your priorities and only firm up an application when you are confident that you can sell a licence. Remember IP is just a tool in the box, so make sure it does the job you want."
Martin is giving himself another year to crack the market. Then he may have to consider quitting. Or hope that a senior exec in one of the supermarkets sees all the potential benefits of his idea.
- Peter Martin's Junkk website