By CEO & Founder Maddie Booth:
I studied Global Sustainable Development at the University of Warwick, my studies opened my eyes to the fact that current business models out there were not fit for a sustainable future. As many students do, I ended up working at a coffee shop to support myself through my studies. But the difference for me was that whilst at work I noticed the sheer amount of coffee grounds going to waste, 10’s of kilograms every single day. If this was going to waste here, how much is going to waste from coffee shops all over the country?
At the same time, my skin started breaking out and for the first time I was faced with tackling acne, shaking my self confidence. I tried every single product out there that promised to ‘fix’ my skin but nothing worked. On the flip side, through my passion for sustainability I began researching the effects of these cosmetics on the wider environment finding that in one of my favourite products, a high street serum, there were over 1.45 billion polyethylene particles, one of the most damaging microplastics. In an effort to move away from these environmentally damaging products, I tried to switch to sustainable cosmetics, however, these were completely out of my student budget costing almost as much as my monthly food shop!
I was faced with a triple dilemma: Student budget + Studying sustainability + My skin constantly breaking out = the need for affordable, sustainable and effective skincare products.
So, I decided to make my own!
I started making my own sustainable skincare products from accessible ingredients by
researching and formulating using online guides, then I wondered if there could be another use for the coffee waste I was seeing from the coffee shop. And that’s when I invented Scrubbee, a circular cosmetic company utilising ‘waste’ from the beverage supply chain and upcycling it into our skincare products. By repurposing by-products we are able to keep costs low and transfer this to our customers.
We are proud to say that Scrubbee is completely vegan, ethical, plastic and micro-plastic free! Good for your skin and good for the environment! Since launch in January 2021 we have saved over 3500 cups of coffee grounds from going to landfill!
We are scaling quickly here at Scrubbee and have just completed a research report into the by-products of the beer and wine industry, looking to expand our product range and save more waste!
Please connect with us and follow our journey over at @scrubbeeuk on all socials or at www.scrubbee.co.uk
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