Zero Plastics turns its eyes toward sunglasses and the Commonwealth Games

Fresh from talking to organisers about how his innovative recycled plastic could be used in the 2026 Commonwealth Games, Mr Slater pitched an idea to potential investors that could help him land larger premises for the company's expansion.

Mr Slater and wife Ashlee run Zero Plastics from their Sebastopol home and since launching in December 2020 with a recycled plastic turtle keyring he now has more than 100 products on the market.

Each is made from plastic bottle tops which are shredded, heated and hand-pressed or extruded into moulds.

Since the company began commercial operations, it has recycled about a million plastic lids, equivalent to three tonnes of material, and made it in to more than 65,000 individual products.

"We turn single use plastic milk lids in to plastic products," he said.

With the Commonwealth Games having procurement policies for local contractors and suppliers to win contracts, Mr Slater put up his hand to show organisers what he can do with recycled plastic.

"Anything that can be made locally should be made locally and we have the ability to turn plastic lids ... into almost anything to avoid using virgin plastic from China," he said.

"We can create up to 100 different products, we can do branded pens, clip boards, A5 books, recycled plastic sunglasses."

Many companies and organisations, including zoos across the country, have come to the home-based business for products.

"It's endless the projects we can make now and that's been the most mind-blowing part of it. We can create the molds - local business people come to us with an idea that we can bring to life by creating a mould in-house, making the product, wholesaling it to them and they sell it through their business ... using a more sustainable stream.

"Instead of buying from China using virgin plastic, they are happy to support locals ... with ideas they can bring to life and we can easily make changes."

Mr Slater makes thousands of custom bag tags and key rings for Zoos Victoria, Ballarat Wildlife Park and zoos right across the country.

But it is recycled plastic sunglasses that Mr Slater has set his sights on as a way to move Zero Plastics forward and into bigger premises - and it was this idea that he presented to the Regional Angel Investor Network's Australian Regional PitchFest event in Ballarat yesterday.

"I've pitched for $10,000 to do a 1000 sunglasses campaign," he said. "I'd use $9000 to buy 1000 pairs of lenses and make recycled plastic sunglass frames and if I could sell 1000 of those the revenue raised would be quite big, as they would be our top tier product, and I could use that money to get a factory and grow more," he said.

The extra space is needed to expand the business as orders come in at much higher quantities than when he first started. Zoos alone are ordering 10,000 units while potential Commonwealth Games orders could be up to 100,000 units.

"We are still in our single car garage looking to move into a factory because, literally and metaphorically, we are hitting the ceiling in what we can do in a small space."

Mr Slater said he had been blown away by how quickly his businesses had expanded, even being asked to make the trophies for the Premier's Sustainability Awards last year.

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"If you give people the option to buy a virgin plastic product or recycled, most people these days choose the recycled product," he said.

While a dinosaur puzzle, sunglasses, recycled plastic notebooks and alphabet key rings are next on the drawing board, Mr Slater said his end goal was to manufacture a 180cm x 240cm recycled plastic sheets that could be used in building construction to replace plaster board, for feature walls and wet areas.

Early stages business founder and investor Sam Almaliki founded the Regional Angel Investor Network (RAIN) to connect regional entrepreneurs directly with investors after identifying that regional startups had limited access to investment to help them grow.

Five startups pitched at the Ballarat event, held at Runway HQ, yesterday and if successful stand to benefit not just from financial support, but mentoring and networking support.

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