Natural cleaning with Dirt

Our friends at The Dirt Company have been creating revolutionary, refillable laundry essentials in Australia since 2016. Their commitment to making 100% biodegradable products for home laundries is both admired and used by our team.

We caught up with Frankie Layton, Founder of The Dirt Company, to hear about her story and learn how they maintain a sustainable supply chain, including their use of our Compostable Hand Pallet Wrap. 

Great Wrap: Hey Frankie! Can you tell us a bit about your business, The Dirt Company, and why you started it?

Frankie: I first developed an itch to create a business focussed on sustainability when I was 18. At the time I was working overseas as a stewardess on a boat and loving it. I'm an ocean baby through and through.

One day, I walked to the back of the boat and saw our deckhand throwing bags of rubbish overboard. Shocked, I asked him what he was doing. He responded, where do you think our trash goes? This was 2007.

I researched and learnt that when we were at sea, it was perfectly normal to dump whatever you wanted so long as you were 12 nautical miles offshore. (This law was amended in 2013, it’s now illegal to dump certain waste, including plastic). 

It got me thinking very hard about trash. Until then, in my mind trash had always just "gone away". I couldn’t stop thinking about it. But at that time I couldn’t stop thinking about a lot of things. I wanted a degree. I needed a job. I needed to eat & pay rent.

I ended up in advertising, surrounded by great people, but doing work where I often felt a job well done, was a poor result for the things that made me happy. I’d lost the connection to who I was. I had no idea how to find my way back. I cared about the ocean. I was plagued by consumerism and trash.

Standing in the supermarket aisle one day I was stumped about which laundry detergent to buy. I’d moved in with my best friend who was easily irritated by detergent. I wanted a product that worked but was sensitive to her skin and the environment - the impossible brief.

I started to notice other things too. Heaps of excess packaging. Very well disguised cost per wash. Hidden ingredients. The list went on. It was like the concept of sustainability had not yet hit the laundry aisle. I could do better. It took two years to develop Dirt. A laundry detergent with a focus on what matters; a great product that does less harm.

Great Wrap: It’s shocking to hear about rubbish being thrown overboard! We’re grateful to hear that this experience led you to start Dirt though. Can you tell us about the impact you’ve made so far?

Frankie: We've had the same unwavering goal since Dirt was launched; make the best products that cause the least harm along the way. It's a mission that acknowledges that if you have a business, you have an impact.

Some of the ways we reduce that impact is through creating super concentrated formulas, a careful packaging selection, and a Refill, Return program. The combination of a growing business and our focus on reduce, reuse and recycle has helped us prevent more than 45 tonnes of plastic from entering our system this year, which is an amazing result.

After discovering that nearly 80% of the impact of an item of clothing comes from the laundering process, we also started to think about how we could lower the impact of laundry routines as a whole. This year we launched our Fabric Spray, with first in market odour removing probiotics - enabling our customers to wash less.

It might seem a little counterintuitive at first, particularly from a laundry detergent company, but it's a small change that can have a big impact on reducing the environmental footprint of our laundry routines. As a not-so-small bonus, it is actually much better for your clothes as it will slow down wear and tear and improve their longevity. In particular, things like wool jumpers and denim jeans can really last well between washes. 

Great Wrap: We can confirm the Refill, Return program is a hit — we’ve loved seeing your laundry packaging come through on its second cycle. What are some of the changes you’ve made in your supply chain to make the business more sustainable?

Frankie: Our cardboard usage is a big one. When we first moved into our current factory we filled a large cardboard recycling skip twice per week. This was with product packaging waste, production waste, and picking / dispatch waste. We’ve since made a couple of changes, and have managed to take our cardboard recycling waste down to a small bin every fortnight. In everyday terms, this is a reduction from 16 wheelie bins, to 4 bins worth of cardboard to be recycled in a week. 

To do this, we’ve really focused on implementing the most efficient and sustainable supply chain. From the point where our product is manufactured into 1000L IBCs in a factory 20km away, our entire supply chain is in-house. This change has allowed us to reduce the number of times a product is transported, packed and repacked, which eliminates so much waste.

We’ve also moved to tapeless boxes, which allows us to keep our boxes in circulation for much longer, and eventually be shredded to be used as padding. We also shred all the boxes that any other warehouse goods come in, so that the only thing that makes it into the cardboard bin is truly waste we can no longer use because it is too damaged, small, or wet.

Great Wrap: That’s a huge waste reduction — something to be proud of! You’re also using Great Wrap in your supply chain now. Can you tell us about the reason behind the shift from traditional stretch wrap to ours?

Frankie: What happens when the product is at home with you, is just a small piece of the 'impact' puzzle. It’s a bit of an industry dirty secret; the pallet wrapping involved in production and transportation creates so much waste before the product hits the consumers hands.

We try to manage this by keeping our supply chain in house, but occasionally we still do need to wrap pallets for OH&S reasons, and that’s why we shifted to Great Wrap.

Great Wrap: That’s a very accurate description of pallet wrap; it truly is a dirty secret hidden away from consumers — until now! How have you and the team found working with our compostable hand pallet wrap so far?

Frankie: Using Great Wrap has been awesome as it means that we’re able to keep every stage of our supply chain part of the circular system that we’ve worked so hard to create. Being a pretty unavoidable part of making almost any product, it’s super important to us that Great Wrap is both 100% compostable and durable enough to keep our pallet loads secure.

Great Wrap: Amazing! We love to hear that. What's next for Dirt? Are you working on any new products at the moment? 

Frankie: We actually just launched a new product last month, which has been in the works for the last 2 years for us, so we’ve been kept pretty busy. We’re so excited about it - it’s a stain remover that’s specifically formulated to target oil, body and grease stains; think like blood, sweat, vomit, oily foods and makeup (no such thing as TMI in laundry!). 

Great Wrap: Absolutely no such thing as TMI! That’s such an exciting product — congratulations to the team, and thank you for all of your hard work in keeping our laundries free from harsh chemicals and excessive waste.