Plastics & Rubber World - November/December 2019 - 18

Plastics industry awards 2019

consumer Product design of the year

Just the tops

(From left) Shaun Williamson, Christopher Mallows, director at William J Inventions,
and Sean Wade, technical director at Plastech Solutions

T

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18

WWW.PRW.COM | November/december 2019

he Plastics Industry Awards trophy
for the Best Consumer Product
Design of the Year was awarded to
William J Inventions for its ToPo product.
Essentially, ToPo is a modified screw top
closure; they can be collected and joined
together to create patterns and models.
Speaking to PRW after the awards
presentation, Dr. William 'Willy' Johnson
had this to say about how he came up
with the idea. "I dropped a plastic top
[from another product] on the floor and
noticed the vertical lines on the side wall.
It was a 'Eureka!' moment! I suddenly realised the possibility of joining one top to
another and what a wonderful construction toy it could make."
The tops, which can be round or
square, are joined together using an
interlocking mechanism. They further
feature words, numbers and messages
printed into the plastic, which means they
could also serve as game pieces.
The ToPo name refers to the longer
message: Stop pollution. Like other
popular building bricks, the plastic tops
are fully recyclable, but as Johnson says:
"Who will ever wish to!"
He added: "I feel that ToPo is such a
game changer in the beverage industry,
but there is perhaps a nervousness in becoming the first to put a foot in the water.
I feel that the industry is very closed [to
new ideas] and that a 'not invented here'
syndrome is prevalent."

On winning the award, Johnson said
that he was "very surprised and grateful".
He is hoping that exposure of the ToPo
product will help get an interested manufacturer onboard with the project.
"Promotion and publicity is the best
tonic that ToPo could have in its quest for
commercial success. Winning the award
will be a great help with this. Indeed, it
may be life giving!"
He continued: "ToPo success would be
a wonderful end - the final invention - for
an old inventor looking to innovate. My
dream is that one day every beverage
container will have a ToPo on the top."
Dr. Johnson holds more than 150
patents, including the world's first trainer/
training shoe with an integrated pedometer and film coatings for visual displays.



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Plastics & Rubber World - November/December 2019

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Plastics & Rubber World - November/December 2019

Contents
Plastics & Rubber World - November/December 2019 - Cover1
Plastics & Rubber World - November/December 2019 - Cover2
Plastics & Rubber World - November/December 2019 - Contents
Plastics & Rubber World - November/December 2019 - 4
Plastics & Rubber World - November/December 2019 - 5
Plastics & Rubber World - November/December 2019 - 6
Plastics & Rubber World - November/December 2019 - 7
Plastics & Rubber World - November/December 2019 - 8
Plastics & Rubber World - November/December 2019 - 9
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Plastics & Rubber World - November/December 2019 - 11
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Plastics & Rubber World - November/December 2019 - 18
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Plastics & Rubber World - November/December 2019 - Cover3
Plastics & Rubber World - November/December 2019 - Cover4
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