A 25-year-old product design engineer, Gary Poolman, is UK-based Axion Polymers’s first-ever Green Product Design Competition winner. His product, Wazzon, is a clever gadget for quickly drying plastic sandwich bags so they can be washed and re-used.

Designed to be made from Axion’s 100% recycled plastic Axpoly compound, the injection-moulded, three-pronged Wazzon can also be used to dry other types of bags and items, such as rubber gloves.

Mr Poolman, who will work with Axion on taking his product to market, received a £500 (US$749) cash prize from Axion’s director Keith Freegard on March 16, 2010.

The Wazzon was picked from a shortlist of five by a panel of external judges, which included two politicians, a director of a university, a social responsibility advisor at a leading UK retailer and an experienced industrial designer.