In this episode of Engineering Success, we sit down with Jess Hodge, co-founder and managing director of Resourceful Living, a revolutionary company transforming plastic waste into beautiful, durable products. Jess shares her inspiring journey from marketing to sustainability, sparked by a eye-opening honeymoon experience. Learn how Resourceful Living is tackling plastic pollution in the Hunter region, their innovative manufacturing process, and the challenges they’ve overcome, including a devastating fire. Discover the power of community support, the importance of resilience in entrepreneurship, and how education plays a crucial role in changing our relationship with plastic. Jess offers valuable insights for startups and discusses the future of recycled materials in manufacturing. This conversation is a must-watch for anyone interested in sustainability, circular economy, and the potential of up-cycled plastic.
Please note: this transcript has been auto-generated and may contain some errors.
And to see them picking up the rubbish that had come in on the tides and every morning was just really shocking. I think up until that point I had really thought about rubbish being out of sight, out of mind. If I throw it away, it’s gone.
But that time in my life, I realised that just because it’s out of my house or garbage, it’s actually just moved to someone else’s problem or move to somewhere else in the environment. So that was probably a really stark learning curve for me, that it didn’t just disappear. Absolutely, yeah.
It’s definitely a lot more visual. Yeah, I think it was the visual part because, you know, bins around here get collected every week. We don’t, you Know, store.
And then I think a lot of us would be surprised what we, you know, throughout, in a month, you know, if we had to store it for a month and then go, oh goodness. Yeah, yeah. So what happened from that moment of kind of looking at all that waste? What was the next step in that thought process? Yeah, so Geoff, my husband’s a materials engineer, obviously very helpful when working with polymers.
And from that point we had decided that we were going to do something about our waste plastic and try and find ways that we could reuse it. So what we initially did was just start saving and Covid was our next big, I guess, moment in our life where it gave us an opportunity to really look inward at ourselves and what we were doing and were we happy. And we kind of decided that business is kind of like a baby and there’s never the right time.
You just leap in. So during 2021, we started doing resourceful living out of our garage and trying to find ways that we could reuse and revitalize waste plastic. So we did have friends and family, you know, storing and dropping off plastic in our driveway.
Yeah, it was, it was a big learning curve. And then we got to the point that we actually were able to get a hundred square meters factory at Beresfield. So that was our first big leap.
And we’d said to each other that we’re on a two year lease and we were going to give it two years of everything. And it worked because we’re still here. Fantastic.
Yeah, so, and then it’s been running now. Yeah, three and a half years of actually producing something. So I guess as far as that process of, you know, looking at plastic and turning it then into these beautiful products that you do talk us through that process.
Yeah, sure. I’d love to talk to you about the process. So for us, we get plastic in, we get clean waste predominantly.
So that’s because we don’t actually have washing facilities on, on site. And it’s crazy how much, you know, clean waste is actually out there. We then shred it and we sort the plastic by both its plastic type and color.
And the reason that we do that is so that for our end product we can actually give customers the option of would you like white with a little bit of black or a little bit of blue, rather than shredding everything together and going, well, enjoy your multicolor. One thing we set out to do as well is look at all thermoplastics. So we do not at the moment, we don’t do all of them, but we do most of them.
So one through to six is your main ones that you definitely see in the triangle on a lot of products around your house. And then we’ve got our number seven. So they’re things like acrylic and polycarbonate and polyurethane.
So we set out to not just do your stock standard hdpe, although that is one of our favorites and it is quite versatile. We wanted to show that all, all plastics actually have a reuse space, I guess, where if you find the correct application for it for its next life, it can be just as good as brand new plastic. And some of them are just stunning to look at though.
Like, it’s a beautiful product as well. Yeah, we did one recently actually, which was a mix of black, clear and gray and it came out so marbly that I actually had to remind myself, no, no, no, it was actually wasted. And so it was buckets, car headlights and shampoo and conditioner bottles, which separately, you know, you don’t look at them and go, oh, you’re gorgeous.
So it was really lovely to see that. We’re starting to really be able to create some really cool designs that start to challenge people on is it waste or actually, you know, can I make this product look really higher end? Yeah, yeah, they definitely look high end. Yeah.
Thank you. So as far as like a sourcing products, you touched a little bit on before about, you know, in the early days, friends and family donating products. How do you mainly source your products now and ensure you keep that sustainability focus? Yeah, Just to give everyone a bit of an overview, our 2.4
by 1.2 meter sheets that are 20 mil thick, take 1375 milk cartons and that’s just one single sheet. So that’s why we had to definitely look at ways of getting waste locally from bigger sources.
Because I do not advocate in any way to use more plastic. If anything, I want everyone to really look at more sustainable and reusable or compostable options. But as you can see, one sheet for us does take quite a bit of weight.
So a lot of where our waste comes from locally is actually our councils. So we get a lot from all our local councils. So Newcastle, Singleton, Maitland as just a few, as well as then business waste, it’s really opened my eyes in terms of clean business waste that’s out there that’s currently just going to landfill.
For example, hard hats, they’re a great source for us, mostly clean. And when I say clean, clean for us is not dirt or dust, it’s more chemicals. Okay, yeah.
So, you know, dirt or any. Anything that isn’t really hazardous, that’s not a problem for us. So we’ve.
We’ve been doing a really cool project recently where it’s pipes that have come from Singleton Council and they’ve been converted into wheel stops and they’re now heading to a project in Belmont. So it’s really wonderful that if you actually do its carbon footprint of how far it’s traveled since it was used, it’s, you know, maybe 100 kilometres. That’s really impressive, isn’t it? Yes.
And it comes as a waste product and goes out as a brand new product that can be used for a very long time. So are they having a second life after the wheel stock and being that particular part’s being recycled again? Yeah, so with a few of those projects that we’re doing, they’ll stay as what they are for as long as they need to. But then we’ve organised that, yeah, they will come back and a few of them are already being earmarked to become tables.
So. Cool, isn’t it? Yeah. And all within that kind of hunter region.
Yeah, yeah. So, you know, then it’ll just be another trip to us and then another trip to someone else when they’re backers. Yeah.
So it’s really exciting that as well. In the Hunter, we’ve got such great businesses that do extraordinary things and we can do it all local. You know, you don’t realise until you start shipping things how big this country is or that you traveled 10 hours and you’re still in New South Wales.
So I’m really proud to be, you know, in business in the Hunter. It’s a really cool area. Yeah, I guess on that, like, are there other advantages you’ve noticed of being a hunter business, like having your business located here? I just feel from the networking as well as the level of calibre of business, so we’ve got such a wide variety.
We’re not, you know, just say all retail. Like we’ve got such great businesses from manufacturing to retail and beyond. So it’s really awesome that we can do a lot locally.
Lots of talented individuals in the area. Oh, definitely, definitely. Yeah.
You spoke a little bit before just I guess around the logistics and how far things are. Have you had some kind of main challenges in the business around either technical or logistics in running your business? Probably when we first started, because we were so little yet we needed more plastic than say, friends and family or whatever could help us with. A lot of our plastic waste originally came from Sydney and Melbourne purely because they would send up one ton for us.
And when we were in 100 square meters, that was great because that’s all we had at our disposal. Now that we’re working out of Karri Kuri, we’ve got a much larger space which also on the back end of that, we’ve grown with our clients that we’re now using that amount of plastic up. So we’ve been able to then work with the councils and other big business and take their waste on a regular basis, which has been wonderful.
Yeah. But we know by taking the waste we’re actually using it on the flip side and it becoming a product. Not when we were first starting that, you know, we had a client recently that was like, oh, you know, we go through, you know, 15 tonnes every three months and for us now, no problem.
But when we were first starting we would have been like, oh, goodness, like too much. Too much. Yeah.
So that’s, I guess just business growth has really helped us also be more sustainable. Cause we can say yes to more local businesses and go, yeah, no worries. Like we’ve got the space to store, but we’ve got the products and the clients to then also move it along.
Because we don’t want to be a storage or a waste facility place. We want to be seen as remanufacturing and upcycling of plastic waste. Not the feel good here.
I’ve recycled because I’ve given my waste resourceful living, but not then helped with the closed circular loop with purchasing a product. Yeah. So that’s one thing that we’re really trying to share with clients and the broader public that we can recycle, but you also need to be on the other end of the closed loop and looking at products that use recycled material or upcycled or to really make the sector work.
Yeah. And I guess that sustainability part, obviously that’s one of the key focuses of your business. How do you measure success and that, you know, achieving what you want to in that space.
I have a very big Google sheets and we do monthly, like stock takes of the plastic as well as looking at how many kilometers everything travels. And from there we set our KPIs and then we will adjust as we need, but we’re always looking at ways to reduce our impact. So we want to be as sustainable as possible.
And so I guess just looking at ways all the time is what I probably do most. And then I just keep a log of everything. So it’s also nice to look back and go, oh, that’s where we’ve come from, you know, and see that.
I think sometimes when you’re in it every day you go, oh, my goodness, like, are we making progress? And then it’s when you look back and go, well, we, you know, shipped a ton of plastic from Sydney and now, you know, the furthest it comes from is Singleton. That’s fantastic. Absolutely.
Gotta celebrate those wins. Don’t. Yeah, yeah.
Like, that’s a huge change and a massive win for sustainability and the environment, that it’s not traveling hours. Yes. Yeah, absolutely.
Yeah. It’s about the. As you touched on the whole carbon footprint and circular economy as part of that.
Yeah, yeah. So as far as you’ve touched on before about some of your business partners, what impact to local communities has resourceful living had so far? I like to think that we’ve had a bit of an impact, I definitely can feel, from our fire that happened last. Last year.
That was such a turning point for us in terms of that the community just rallied behind us. And I feel that that’s not only what we do, but also that the people we are. And we had businesses from all over reaching out, offering machines and space and feedstock, and it was probably one of the most beautiful moments in such a horrific time.
So with the, you know, fire not being any fault of our own, it was something that we woke to in the morning, that our whole life had been turned upside down. Yet the community, both business and our customers, it just felt like they gave us a massive big hug. And I feel that we must have had some impact for that response.
Yeah, I mean, we had a. We had a supplier who we buy some of the plastic off, and he sent us up one of his shredders that he wasn’t using to help us to get back on our feet again. And to me, that just.
Well, it was just so beautiful because, like, he. He didn’t need to do that. Yeah.
Yet that was the sort of help that people were like, look, get back on your feet as soon as you. Can he borrow this? Like, you know, that was probably one of the biggest moments that I’ve realized. Yeah.
From networking, being out and about, that definitely for us and in this area, we just felt like everyone was, you know, put their hand out, picked us up off the ground and was like, you can go again. So that’s amazing, though. So.
Yeah. And I can only put it as, you know, when a really traumatic event happens and you have this feeling like you just have to keep showing up because the world keeps turning. Yeah.
We got this feeling that everyone took a moment to be a bit sad for us, but then to be and tell us, no, like, you’ve got this, you know, keep going. Let us know if there’s anything we can do. So we didn’t feel like we were doing it all alone.
Yeah. It was so lovely. Yeah.
So that’s why we’ll never move away from the Hunter. Yeah, yeah, yeah. There’s such a.
I think some supportive business community here. Yeah, definitely. Yeah.
And I guess a fire and I guess such a tragic kind of impact to businesses. It. I guess it makes us look a little bit inward on ourselves.
What have you learned about yourself, about through all this? I would definitely say that my resilience is really quite good now. It was one of those opportunities that, yes, got to look inward, got to have a look at the direction that the business was going in. And I’ve actually found that now I’ve got a really good catastrophe meter.
So things that I. That used to, you know, when you get your heart racing a little bit and you’re like, oh, that’s stressing me out a little bit now I feel that I’ve gotten through that and I mean, with the help of everyone, it was definitely not a me thing, but I now feel so empowered that I can get through anything. It’s kind of given me this really burst of energy to go, look, you have rebuilt from nothing.
You can definitely continue and get through a little problem. Such a. I guess it’s such a big thing and such a powerful shift of mindset that you need to do to, you know, rebuild.
And. Yeah, and I think it’s that change that. It puts so many things into perspective.
Perfect example is, you know, having to ring a client and say, look, unfortunately the due date for your job is pushed back a couple of days. I hated doing that, whereas I still don’t lie to. And we definitely try and not have to do that, but I definitely feel a lot more confident now talking with clients about maybe things that isn’t all rainbow and sunshine’s.
Yeah. But being able to articulate it. So I think it’s given me quite a few more strengths.
That’s good. So I guess as a business, over time you guys have been recognized through winning some awards, been listed as finalists a few times. I’ve got a couple of your recent ones listed here.
So in 2022, you were the winner of the Hunter Manufacturing Awards Outstanding startup business. In 2024, you’re the Hunton at Industry Excellence Award for Sustainability. How important are those awards? For you as a business and being recognized, it’s really incredible.
I think for us, being even just a finalist is just amazing. And to know that what we’re doing and putting out into the world is being noticed and recognised by others. All of the awards that we’ve been finalists or even had the opportunity to win, I mean, pinch me, as an 18 year old, I never thought I would be, you know, making a career out of repurposing waste.
Something that I’m so passionate about. And it’s those moments that take my breath away when other people and other organizations share their same passion with me and also then want to, I guess, shout it from the rooftops as well. And it just is so heartwarming.
And I’m so proud of the awards that we’ve. Yeah. Being finalists or one.
And I’m just going to keep going. That’s great. We want you to.
Thank you. So as far as advice for other startups, what would you tell another startup business who are early in their journey? My piece of advice for another startup early in their journey is keep going, keep pushing through. You can feel like nothing is going right.
You can feel like you want to rock in the corner and cry. We’ve all been there. But pick yourself up and just try one more time.
Because we went through so many trials, fails before we got to where we were and we wouldn’t have if we’d given up after the first few fails. The other one is, sorry, am I allowed to. Yeah, go for it.
Please do. So my other one as well is do not compare yourself to other businesses. I found myself doing that in the early stage and going, oh my goodness, I want to be like them.
And we’re all on a different journey and there’s businesses that we work with that were, you know, started in the 1980s or, you know, there’s businesses that are 100 years old and you’re starting when it’s right for you. And so if you go to another business and they’ve got 50 employees and look like they got everything together, know that everyone had to start at a startup like most businesses had to start with just a couple of people to begin with. It was only the other day I was reading about the first ever Kohl’s store and it stopped me in my tracks going, of course, of course Kohl’s had to start as a one store before it became what it is.
So, yeah, definitely just keep going. Pick yourself up and just know that you are where you’re supposed to be. Don’t try and judge or compare yourself to other businesses.
Love it. And what about like looking back at your own journey, you know, key learnings. Is there anything you would have changed if you, you know, going through that process again? Very good question.
I’m one of these people that I kind of go with the idea that what’s happened has happened and I feel that I, I probably wouldn’t change anything that we have done because it’s gotten us to where we are today. But I have definitely learned some very important skills. Yes, I’ve definitely learned more about leadership and running a company.
So I feel that all of it has just meant to be in a way. I know that probably sounds really corny, but I think I’ve also changed my idea of mistakes. I used to try and not make a mistake because it’s really cool apparently.
But I found that, yeah, if I look back on things that we’ve done in the last three and a half years, the fails and the mistakes are what have made us better. So I also encourage everyone to make a mistake and learn from it. I think.
I know lots of people say it, but I feel it’s not until you live through it or a really big one that you go, ah, that’s now I get what they mean. Thank you for sharing that. And so resourceful living as a business.
What’s next? What do you got planned in the future? Let’s say five years or so. Quite a lot of things. So our main one is rebuilding and moving into the location next door that burnt down.
So that’s going to be super exciting. So that’s, that’s near future. Yeah.
And then we’re looking at hopefully expanding and having depots closer to other areas so that we’re not shifting plastic and waste and shipping even finished products all over the country and more having hubs that would be more beneficial to keeping the logistics side really tight knit. Yeah, that’s definitely on our hit list. Very good.
If you could see a shift in our approach to plastic and how we view it and use it in the next five years, what might that look like? So I’ve definitely seen a shift in the last six to 12 months and I can feel it just sort of snowballing. So when we first started, it nearly felt like I was paying people to trial it out. I came up with an elevator pitch.
I had all my dot points of how great it was, what we could do with it. And I still remember this one customer was like, but will it smell like landfill? And so you would get interesting questions right that it felt like people really standoffish. And.
And a perfect example actually was our coffee table that we originally released was plastic legs, plastic top. People said, oh, looks lovely, but we’d like it to be a bit more sturdy. Interestingly, we changed the legs to metal and apparently it was a bit more sturdy.
Fast forward 18 months, we now sell the plastic legs and table all in one. And people say how sturdy it is. And I feel that it’s just the change.
People are realizing that we use plastic for products that are flimsy. So your milk containers, your shampoo and conditioner, we use them for, you know, five minutes and we can throw them out. We can also step on them and we can also crush them, no problem.
Which gives people this idea that it’s a really weak material. We use metal frames and we have broken a lot of metal frames from the plastic being so strong that it will just plow through anything. And so now as of like today, and that I will have people that will just contact and go, oh, I’ll buy X amount of sheets.
And I’m getting better at it. But originally I said to a few, but I’ve got a really good spiel. And they were like, oh, that’s fine, we want the recycled sheets.
And so I feel that the change has definitely begun and is only going to get better in terms of my goal is that recycled plastic is not a niche, it’s just another product. And there’s always a place in the world for other materials, but there’s also now a place in the world that remanufactured plastic can definitely have its limelight. Yeah.
And that would definitely be one of my biggest changes that I’ve seen in terms of people now will purchase without me having to be like, have you heard how good that is? And my other change that I’ve really seen is we started off really consumer based, which worked well, but we then made a very big pivot to business, which is what has helped our, our business continue to grow. In the last definite six months, the consumer side has like really come up and without heaps of questions. So I feel that people are definitely more accepting of it.
Yeah, already educated, I guess. Yeah, educated. They don’t require the metal to give it the, the sturdy look that originally, you know, and I get it.
I tell people the legs were made out of milk cartons, you know, and people look at me and go, well, you know, they’re thinking in their head, I can step on a milk carton, no problem. Like, and that has definitely been the bigger change. And I’m really excited that, yeah, people are now open to other materials.
Yeah. So. And there’s always going to be a place, you know, for some new plastic, definitely in hospitals.
But, you know, you think of all the other options like outdoor furniture and things that could definitely be recycled. And I think a learning I’ve had from our discussions is just how long your products last for as well. Could you talk us through that a little bit? Yeah, sure.
So this is definitely where the HDP comes into it in terms of. It’s just got some really good products properties for longevity. And that’s one thing that we really work on and pride ourselves on, is finding the correct plastic so that when you get a product from us, it is going to last years and years and years, like 25 plus easily, without that feeling of, oh, is it three months.
And a perfect example that I share with a lot of people is the kids outdoor furniture. A lot of that is polypropylene. And you’ll notice that in terms of that, it fades and it will crack really easily.
So it’s excellent for profit because people throw it out and they’ll buy a new one. However, if we find the right plastic for the application. So for that one, for example, that would be hdpe.
Have that kid’s furniture for a very long time, rain, hail or shine. And it’s changing that perspective that. Yeah, the right plastic for right application will give you longevity and durability.
Yeah. Less things having to be recycled. Yes.
Yes. If we just. Yeah.
Purchase the right material at the. And I mean, it’s not a. It’s a manufacturing and business thing in that sense, because consumers can only purchase what’s available.
Yeah. And so, you know, when they’re looking for a kid’s outdoor furniture, I mean, you don’t have a lot of choice there, so. Yeah.
But one thing I did see recently is it all starts with design. And I definitely feel getting more of a shift of businesses to look inward at the products that they’re selling. Like, can they be recyclable? Can they be upcycled? Could they use a recycled material from the beginning rather than putting more new material out in the world? Yeah.
And Jeff does most of your design for you in house. Yes. Yeah.
So, yeah, he will do all our testing. Sometimes we’ll get it done at actual testing places, depending on what we. What we need to have completed.
And then he will also be the one that looks at the materials in terms of can we use it for that application. What thickness does it need to be all of that sort of engineering side of things. Very good.
So Resourceful Living is also, I guess, looking after our next generations. As far as the education piece, can you talk us through some of that and what you do? Yeah, I’m really proud of the education side of resourceful living. And that is because there is so much plastic out there that everyone needs to be part of the solution.
And so one thing that Resourceful living does is goes to schools and we educate students on different types of plastic recycling, understanding how we actually manufacture it, and then also being able to take our desktop machine which enables students to then actually make their own coasters or earrings then and there on the spot out of waste so they can actually get a hands on view of how we manufacture things. I feel that for me, until I really got into manufacturing, I didn’t really get how we got from raw material to a product. Whereas I really want to show students that this is on a smaller scale, this is how it, how it works and how we get new products from the plastic waste that you throw out.
And I mean, as you said, our next generation, they’re the ones that are going to lead us into the future. And we need students to be looking at ways to be more sustainable and reusing things because we’re going to run out of resources. So yeah, I’m really proud of that side, the business that as a, as a team, as all of us, we can band together and be fully educated and understanding plastic as a whole rather than, you know, it’s only when you really dive into the rabbit hole do you realize how much we’re surrounded by plastic.
But until you do that, you don’t really think of. It’s just part of your natural environment almost, isn’t it? Yeah, yeah, definitely. So I feel that giving students that insight, and we do from preschool all the way through to year 12, sharing that then they can be more mindful, they can look out, they can, you know, share with their parents and we’ll all be better for it.
Yeah, absolutely. I know my son’s daycare or preschool that he was going to, they did programs like that as well. And the dislikes, sponges at that age.
And they then come home and educate the parents like. Yeah, the impact it has is understated, I think, you know, so yeah, yeah, they’re definitely sponges and their faces when they see me put it through the machine and a coaster will pop out from the mold. They’re like, it went in as like, you know, flakes and it’s come out as really shows how much kids enjoy like seeing it as well.
Not just being spoken to about it, but being able to look at it and go, oh, wow. Yeah. Loving the kind of the process.
Yeah. So I guess outside of resourceful living this. Jess, what do you do when you’re not at work? What do I do when I’m not at work? I love.
I love reading. I’ve got three boys currently, seven, five and three, so we do a lot of Minecraft and Lego building. The other thing that we really enjoy as a family is going for bike rides.
And I feel probably outside of work, I’m very family orientated at this point in my life, but, you know, also enjoy going and seeing a live show at the Civic Theatre. So that’s the sort of person I am. Awesome, thank you.
I think you’d need to have be out bike riding when you got three boys. Keep you busy. Definitely.
Is there anything else we haven’t covered? No, I think, I think that was wonderful, Mel. Awesome, thank you. Thanks so much.
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