Syracuse Inventor Bags Wastebasket Design

SYRACUSE - Bill Windle, Syracuse, found a way to make taking out the trash a little easier: Windle invented the Re-Use A-Bag Wastebasket.

"It's a wastebasket," Windle said. "It would look kind of like a regular wastebasket, except with different features."

The different features include a bag holder "like a funnel on the top, which is used to hold the plastic grocery bags."

Windle, 48, said the bag holder allows users to keep unused garbage bags with their wastebasket. This saves them from walking down the hall, or wherever their garbage bags are normally kept, to retrieve a bag.

"They're (garbage bags) stuffed in everybody's kitchen drawers and pantries," Windle said. Now, he said, the bags can be kept with the wastebasket. The "funnel" is used to hold spare bags.

"That makes it convenient," Windle said. "The person doesn't have to go back to the pantry to get a bag."

Windle also made a "hook apparatus designed to take the handle of the bags and hold the handle in place to keep the bags from sliding down into the wastebasket." No more will garbage bags slide off the wastebasket, leaving a mess to clean up. With Windle's new hook system, the bag is locked into place.

Before the product came an ingenious line of thinking. The Re-Use A-Bag Wastebasket went through a few test stages.

"I came home from work and my wife had purchased a terry cloth towel that was sewn in a cylinder-type form and it was hanging on the pantry," Windle said. "And she used that to crumple up the (garbage) bag and put it in the top."

"That's how it started," Windle said. Then he thought: "That's a good idea, but there should be something like that on a wastebasket."

So Windle purchased a few wastebaskets and "started cutting them apart and developed a model with a funnel."

Windle thought he "might as well use those handles that are already on the bag." So he developed a hook system.

Then he started playing around with his idea. He developed a wastebasket with the "funnel" in the center of one of the sides. But when he tried to stack the wastebaskets on top of each other, the funnel was in the way.

So he moved the funnel off to the side and made it a separate entity, except for where it attaches to the top. Now the wastebaskets could easily be stacked for transporting or storing. Windle had a finished product, ready to market.

"What we've done so far is we have filed for a utility and design patent and a PCT (patent cooperation treaty) with other countries," Windle said.

The PCT allows the product to be licensed and sold in other countries.

"But the first and foremost area we're concentrating on is the United States," Windle said. Once the trash cans become a success in the United States, Windle said, he'll try to sell them in other countries.

"Right now they're in Meijer's stores," Windle said. "We're in talks with numerous retailers at this time."

The Re-Use A-Bag Wastebaskets are available in white and have a 21-quart capacity. "But we're going to be testing colors," Windle said of his invention. He calls them "fun colors" or "translucent colors."

"We're just selling white right now because it's a neutral color. It's a good starting point," he said.

But the fun and translucent colors are on their way.

"We think they'll be a big hit with kids and college students," Windle said.

Colors the wastebaskets will be found in include sunset orange, lemon-drop yellow and frosted colors. The product has already been designed with colors, although they're not yet available for purchase.

"We're real excited because Meijer's having a really good rate of sale," Windle said of the white wastebaskets.

"They've since re-ordered three times and last time doubled the order," he said.

Besides Windle's sales success, the product also has achieved success in grading.

"I sent my product to Wal-mart Innovation Network and had my product graded by Dr. Gerald Udell, executive director of WIN," Windle said. "Out of 50 points, we were scored a 42, which allowed us to be recommended for local purchase at Wal-mart."

Windle said Udell actually developed the grading system. "So he's a real sharp guy," he said.

Windle said his product is doing well at Meijer. "They told us they're moving extremely well," Windle said. "And that's just white." And, that's just Meijer. Re-Use A-Bag Wastebaskets may soon be found at Wal-Mart, as well as other retail stores.

Windle believes the new colored wastebaskets will be a big hit, especially with college students in their dorm rooms. He also said he's trying to get his product into college bookstores and "a lot of areas, really."

"Every family in the United States has these bags coming at them," Windle said of the plastic garbage bags. With his invention, Windle said, the bags are much more accessible.

Cost for the Re-Use A-Bag Wastebasket is $5.99 and can be found at any Meijer store.

Windle lives in Syracuse with his wife, Ann.