smol’s upcycled ingredients.

The upcycling revolution… starts smol

Upcycling is everywhere. Fashion, furniture, but inside your cleaning products? Who knew?

In the world of sustainable cleaning, upcycled ingredients allow us to take something that’s already been grown, already been harvested, already here… and turn it into something useful rather than letting it become waste and get thrown away.

More bang for your buck.

So in an industry where ingredients usually come from fresh crops grown purely for one specific purpose, upcycling helps us cut down on:

• water use
• land use
• transport carbon emissions
• and the overall carbon footprint of our formulas

But what exactly is an upcycled ingredient?

Upcycled ingredients are made from by-products or leftover materials from another industry (like food, forestry, timber or juice production) and repurposed into high-quality, effective cleaning formulations.

They are not scraps. They are not “less than”. They are still high quality raw materials with a lot of use left in them and the power to grant a real sustainability glow-up.

Upcycling doesn’t mean compromise.

Eucalyptus globulus (from forestry by-products).

Eucalyptus trees used for timber naturally come with leaves and twigs that aren’t used in the actual wood processing industry. Traditionally, these bits of tree were thought of as leftovers and were thrown out.

But now…? They’re distilled to create essential oils.

• every 1kg of eucalyptus oil saves 100kg of biomass from going to landfill.
• even this spent plant material (called bagasse) then becomes natural fertiliser for replanting.
• zero waste. Big win. Fresh scent for our outdoorsy, cosy and bloomin’ lovely fabric conditioners.
  
  

Orange terpene (from juice production).

Orange oil is extracted from the peel and is a big by-product of the fresh juice industry. 

With ingredient-upcycling, the fruit becomes juice while the peel becomes a great source of fragrance as well as a natural cleaning ingredient (it has very strong de-greasing properties). Nothing wasted. Everything used.

• fresh, bright citrus scent
• naturally occurring de-greasing properties
• from peel to oil to beautifully scented products like smol fabric conditioners.
  
  

Lemon oil (from “rejected” fresh market fruit).

Not every lemon is pretty enough for supermarket shelves (apparently). But even “ugly” lemons still smell fantastic! Upcycling means:

• all lemons (regardless of shape or size) can be used for essential oil
• reduces pressure on agricultural land
• supports smaller lemon-growing regions with lower waste streams
• Our smol floor cleaner experiences a wonderful bit of upcycling