This $200 plastic compactor wants to save the world from your kitchen counter

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TL;DR: Texas inventor Ivan Arbouzov built a countertop device that squishes your grocery bags into bricks for recycling. It costs $200 upfront plus $50/month. Yes, really.

Remember when everyone was losing their minds about plastic straws? Well, here’s the thing nobody talks about: only 5% of plastic actually gets recycled in America. The rest? Landfills, baby.

Enter the Clear Drop® Soft Plastic Compactor, which looks like a fancy trash can had a baby with a George Foreman grill.

How This Thing Actually Works

You toss your used Ziploc bags, grocery sacks, and food wrappers into this countertop appliance. It heats them up (don’t worry, Arbouzov has a legit 2020 patent for this) and smooshes everything into a 12″ × 8″ × 4″ brick.

Then you ship that brick to Frankfort Plastics in Indiana using a prepaid label, where it gets turned into actual recycled material instead of sitting in a landfill forever.

The company claims it compresses stuff “10 times” better than just shoving bags into other bags like the rest of us peasants.

The $600 Question

Here’s where things get interesting. This isn’t a one-time purchase. You’re looking at $200 upfront, then $50 every single month. Forever.

That’s $600 per year to recycle your sandwich bags.

For context, many households spend less than that on their entire trash service annually. The subscription covers device payments, pickup service, warranty, and shipping labels, but still… ouch.

But Does It Actually Work?

The recycling crisis is real. Our infrastructure was built for bottles and containers, not the flimsy packaging that now makes up half of all plastic waste. 

Good Good Good confirms the blocks actually get processed into new raw materials, which is more than you can say for most “recycling” programs.

The environmental math sounds impressive: if just 1% of U.S. homes used this thing, we’d divert 300,000 tons of soft plastic annually. That’s roughly 7 billion grocery bags staying out of landfills.

The Reality Check

Arbouzov isn’t some random Kickstarter dreamer. Dude has 14+ patents across various tech categories, including some legit innovations in mobile accessories and range-finding equipment.

But let’s be honest: asking people to pay $50/month for the privilege of recycling is a tough sell. Especially when most grocery stores have those plastic bag drop-offs (that may or may not actually get recycled, but hey, they’re free).

The single recycling partner also raises eyebrows. What happens if Frankfort Plastics can’t keep up with demand?

Should You Buy This?

If you’re drowning in plastic guilt and have money to burn, sure. The technology seems legit, and it’s addressing a real problem.

For everyone else? Maybe wait and see if the price comes down or more recycling partners come online. At $600/year, this is firmly in “luxury environmental guilt relief” territory.

The device is available now and hitting CES 2026, so expect to see it everywhere soon. Just remember: the best plastic is the plastic you don’t use in the first place.

Bottom line: Cool tech, real problem, expensive solution. Your call.

Kevin Raposo

Kevin is KnowTechie's founder and executive editor. With over 15 years of blogging experience in the tech industry, Kevin has transformed what was once a passion project into a full-blown tech news publication. Shoot him an email at kevin@knowtechie.com.