Bagups: Building a Better Trash Bag & Changing the Plastic Business
You’re a busy person who doesn’t have a lot of time to waste on busy work, but everyone needs to change the trash, and it always finds a way to be harder than it needs to be. Everyone’s had to experience this at some point. As it turns out, even an Air Force Nuclear Launch Officer has to empty his office trash at the end of the day. He needs to go all the way down the hall for the bag and go through the whole process like he’s got nothing better to do. It’s just one little annoyance that you don’t need.
Tired and annoyed, Jack Licata was that Air Force officer trudging around with a non-biodegradable plastic bag full of trash and asking himself why things were this way. After asking himself the question enough times, he realized it didn’t need to be. As the Founder and President of ReCircle Brands and inventor of the Bagup product, Jack has replaced that little annoyance with a big new idea. Yes, it’s a better trash bag, but it’s more than that. To Jack, it’s an opportunity to turn a product launch into business practices that are better for the environment and provide value to U.S. veterans.
First Plus: It’s Much More than Just a Better Trash Bag
Let’s face it: even the best bags you can buy at the store haven’t solved the problem of taking out the trash. It always feels just a little bit harder than it needs to be. ReCircle’s Bagups are an entirely new trash bag dispensing system. The box goes in the trash can, and the bag fills like normal, but when you take the full bag out, there’s already a new trash bag in place. That’s the majority of the work done right there. No pulling the bag out, prying it open, shaking it out, or getting trapped air out of the can.
Just take the bag out and throw it away. Done. The Bagup dispensing box lasts a month.
Second Plus: ReCircle’s Environment-Conscious Manufacturing
Plastic is a necessary evil on an environmental scale, but at least Bagups are biodegradable. More importantly, they use minimal packaging, and it’s recyclable. They’re shipped directly to you from the post office, significantly minimizing the delivery vehicles’ carbon footprint. As it turns out, removing a few steps from the delivery process makes a big difference in the long run.
Third Plus: Supporting Veterans with More Patriotic Consumership
This is one of Jack’s main points of pride regarding ReCircle. For assembling the product, they exclusively employ veterans and people with disabilities. Everything is manufactured inside the U.S., which has a host of benefits for the entire supply line, supporting U.S. workers in sourcing materials, processing, and delivery. It also means a lot to Jack that ReCircle is a preferred vendor for the VA Hospital System, a vote of confidence in both the product and the benefit ReCircle’s business practices bring to U.S. Veterans.
A Growing Brand with More Products on the Way
“Don’t die with your potential!” says Jack Licata. “If you have a great idea, don’t sit on it!”
Jack’s idea for a better trash bag system became a product and an entire business operation, bringing value to U.S. workers and doing right by the environment. Bagups have even won the “Best New Green Product” title from both the Chicago Housewares Show and the New Restaurant Show. Other ideas that ReCircle is working on include biodegradable drop cloths, tablecloths, and liners for cat boxes, and one can only guess what kind of down-the-road benefits ideas like that can have if Jack and the team at ReCircle pursue them with the same creativity. Jack hopes that the ReCircle brand can be a significant force in revolutionizing responsible plastic manufacturing and use, and they’re well on their way.
Published by: Nelly Chavez
