What they do:
Smile Plastics specialises in transforming plastic waste into unique, decorative panels and surfaces. The panels and surfaces have applications across interior design or can be crafted into furniture. Their products are used in retail, hospitality, business and residential projects.
As a native circular company that is intrinsically circular and understands the value of waste, Smile Plastics also offers a buy-back scheme for both larger pieces and material offcuts, which are then remanufactured into new pieces — encouraging their customers to embed circular mindsets and understand the intrinsic value of materials.
Solution / Approach:
ARCS is supporting Smile to explore different models of scaling and open innovation. Collaborating with experts to protect the company’s intellectual property so that it can license its unique process and create products using waste materials from local sources. The team are also supporting Smile to identify funding sources that can be used to carry out product and material testing.
Impact:
• Addressing barriers to scale
• Supporting product and material testing
• Creating new connections across the University
Next Steps:
The project is just starting, but we hope it will support with much-needed resources, that are always limited in SMEs.
