Two Good Co is a social enterprise that exists to change the course of the lives of women at risk of homelessness. This is achieved through employing vulnerable women throughout our food business. The mission is to employ and empower 60 vulnerable women a year, every year.

One of the ways to acquire funding for the program was through the sales of soaps and sanitisers. Two Good Co won the national contract to supply soap and sanitisers to Charter Hall buildings nationally, approximately 40 buildings across Australia. This was a real opportunity to increase revenue and drive profits into programs. One of the challenges faced was that many sites used a proprietary soap dispenser throughout a building, as cleaning companies loan soap dispensers for free that then require the use of only their soap. In order for Two Good Co to supply soap, an automatic dispenser was designed, in line with health standards.

The choice of material in a complex commercial grade product that required injection moulding was progressive. A difficulty at the production stage was the compounding down and moulding of fishing lines and nets of different ages, with six tooling modifications and subsequent off-tool samples produced in order to achieve the final product.

To date the Ocean Plastic soap dispenser project has used five-tonne of ocean plastic – all within the first manufacturing run of dispensers. Each dispenser requires 0.5 kilo of recycled ocean plastic and the dispensers are manufactured and assembled in Australia using no plastic packaging. The soap is manufactured, and the dispensers are made and assembled, in New South Wales and where batteries are required, these are rechargeable.

Photography: Ken Spain