Smile Plastics

Leading the movement to transform waste into high-quality making material, Smile Plastics has been driving the shift to the circular economy since long before it was fashionable. The company was first established in the 1990s, and led the way in recycled plastics for two decades before the founders wound the business down. In 2014, circular-design evangelists Adam Fairweather and Rosalie McMillan re-established the company, invested in its technology, and set about a revolution.

From its micro-factory in Swansea, Smile Plastics produces specialist hand-made solid-surface panels for architects and designers worldwide, made from 100% recycled and 100% recyclable plastic waste. Focusing on single-use plastics, the company transforms and elevates materials that would normally be consigned to landfill – ranging from white goods, cosmetic bottles and medical packaging to chopping boards and yoghurt pots. (Look closely at a Smile Plastics panel and you might spot the fleck of silver from a pot lid or the stripes of a barcode.) Thanks to their winning combination of sustainability, practicality and aesthetics, Smile Plastics products are found in retail, residential  and hospitality settings all over the world.

We’ve been following Smile Plastics’ skyward trajectory since the brand was refounded in 2015, and have worked on numerous design and architecture projects that featured its products. Now, buoyed by investment from Green Angel Syndicate’s Climate Change Fund, Adam and Rosalie are steering Smile Plastics into a new chapter, expanding its production capacity, its factory team, and its ambition to make closed-loop, zero-waste production ecosystems the norm rather than the exception.

smile-plastics.com