The global recycling system is struggling to keep up with the waste we generate. Most soft plastics are not accepted curbside, and Soft Plastic Compactor solutions are needed to handle what traditional systems cannot. Organic waste in landfills releases harmful greenhouse gases. Clear Drop® exists to solve this gap – preparing household waste for real recycling before it leaves the home. This approach, called pre-recycling, enables every household to make measurable impact toward a ZeroTrash future.
From the Soft Plastic Compactor and Organics Collector to new inventions in development, Clear Drop’s mission is simple: to fill the gap between home waste collection and the recycling industry.
Clear Drop aims to create a practical and truly impactful pre-recycling system, one that ensures materials are properly prepared for final recycling and 100% recycled with our partners.
We created Clear Drop to fill the gap between home waste collection and the recycling industry with an ultimate ZeroTrash goal. We believe that real environmental change starts not with complicated recycling systems, but with smart, seamless solutions.
Pre-recycling concept
Pre-recycling bridges the gap between how waste is generated and how recycling actually works. Instead of relying on facilities to separate and rescue recyclable materials, Clear Drop® enables households to pre-process waste at the source.
Soft plastics are compacted into density-enhanced blocks for efficient transportation and real downstream recycling. Organic waste is collected and stabilized without odors while retaining its compost properties through the Organics Collector. Together, these devices turn two of the most problematic waste streams into materials that recycling infrastructure can finally work with.
Pre-recycling is not a replacement for recycling – it is what makes recycling possible.
How Clear Drop® Solves What Recycling Can’t
- Soft plastics are prepared for real recycling instead of going to landfill.
- Organics are stored without smell or mess and stay compost-ready.
- Households produce less trash and need fewer collection pickups.
- Trucking emissions are reduced because volume is minimized at home.
- More material stays in the circular economy and out of nature.
Clear Drop team
Founder and CEO Ivan Arbouzov brings 34 years of experience in the hardware industry. Over his career, he has launched several ventures, including a media company, multiple product development businesses, and most notably, a multinational optics and electronics company that became a global leader and an industry standard in its niche.
Ivan has been an inventor since childhood, always driven to create innovative solutions. With Clear Drop, he envisions a future where recycling begins at home, enabling households to pre-process waste in a way that benefits the entire system. This vision underpins Clear Drop’s mission to revolutionize soft plastic recycling and organic waste management for a cleaner, greener future.
Plastic, especially soft plastic, is almost invisible in how ordinary it is. And yet, it's almost impossible to recycle. We unwrap something and immediately discard what’s left, often into a system that’s not ready to deal with it.
“I wanted to work on something that truly mattered. Something that could help shift how we treat the world around us. That’s why I built one of our products, the Soft Plastic Compactor. Not just as a tool, but as a way to catch the problem at the moment it starts, right when waste is created. I reinvested what I earned from past ventures because I believe it needs to exist. I believe we can do better, not through greenwashing or gimmicks, but with real, practical tools that help people take action at home, right when something becomes waste,“ shares Ivan.
That’s what the Soft Plastic Compactor and Organics Collector are for. It’s not just a machine. It’s a small shift in how we deal with what we throw away, and a step toward a better system.
How the pre-recycling concept started
Clear Drop® began developing pre-recycling technology five years ago, combining engineering, chemistry, and industrial design expertise into a new category of home appliances. The first Soft Plastic Compactor prototype debuted at CES 2021, gaining strong validation from industry leaders. Today, Clear Drop® continues to collaborate with recycling facilities, municipalities, and sustainability organizations to build a closed-loop ecosystem – one that guarantees recycling when materials are properly pre-processed.
We have initiated collaborations with numerous projects, recycling facilities, industry stakeholders, and local authorities to create a more sustainable waste management ecosystem and to take responsibility for closing the loop with waste collected and compacted with our devices. Clear Drop envisions a future where households actively participate in waste pre-processing at the source.
Backed by industry leaders
Global recycling experts advise Clear Drop® to ensure our solutions align with real-world processing requirements.
- David Nix – former sustainability lead for global plastics producers, now guiding scalable soft-plastic recovery partnerships.
- Robert Render – pioneer of closed-loop industrial recycling programs with more than 200 successful initiatives.
Their leadership ensures that Clear Drop® products are not “nice to have” gadgets – but critical infrastructure solutions for the future of circular waste systems.
Call to Action: Explore Clear Drop® Devices
Soft Plastic Compactor (SPC) – https://onecleardrop.com/products/soft-plastic-compactor-spc
Organics Collector (OC) – https://onecleardrop.com/products/organics-collector
Our long-term goal is simple: to shift how waste is handled at the point of generation in any form, starting with flexible plastics and organic waste. By working with partners across recycling, policy, and technology, we’re laying the foundation for scalable, lasting solutions to one of the world’s most urgent problems.
