At Just a Glass Australia, sustainability and community are at the heart of what we do — and this winter launching at the Melbourne Finders Keepers Market, we’re proud to be partnering with fellow female-led small business Leaf Candle Co to turn something once discarded into something truly beautiful.
Together, we’re closing the loop on our event sample bottles by giving them a second life as handcrafted home diffusers. It’s a perfect pairing of purpose and creativity — showing how small businesses can work together to make ripple-effect change that benefits both people and the planet.
This collaboration is about more than just recycling; it’s about women in business supporting each other to create brands that do good, feel good, and inspire others to follow suit. We’re thrilled to announce that the Just a Glass x Leaf Candle Co Diffuser Collection will officially launch at The Finders Keepers Market in Melbourne this July. As part of the initiative, we’re inviting customers to bring in their empty piccolo bottles to be reused or responsibly recycled — because together, every small action adds up to something bigger.
We chatted with Tracy from Leaf Candle Co to understand what inspired her to partner with Just a Glass and what brings her brand to life.
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What inspired you to collaborate with Just a Glass on this upcycling project, and what does it mean to you personally?
I first met Amber a few years ago, on the market scene in Melbourne. We got chatting and soon discovered that even though our businesses are very different, we have a lot in common with how both of our businesses began. Add to that the fact that Just a Glass and Leaf Candle Co. share many of the same brand values - I knew I wanted to work with or collaborate with Just a Glass.
As Leaf Candle Co. has expanded our product range, we've been looking at different ways to upcycle other vessels and containers. A core value of ours is to minimise the amount of waste our business creates, so repurposing vessels instead of purchasing new is something high on our list when creating new products: if there is any way we can do it with an existing bottle, container, tin, jar or box... you bet we are going to give it a go! The Piccolo wine bottles at Just a Glass are the perfect size for a diffuser range. I approached Amber to gauge whether there was a waste stream I could take on to create this new product, and to my delight we found a solution - repurposing sample bottles from events, and hopefully in the future, customers can send or return empty bottles for us to repurpose as well. -
Can you tell us how the process works — from collecting the bottles to transforming them into beautiful diffusers?
Just a Glass participates in many markets and events where customers will taste the wine before purchasing. The team at Just a Glass collect and pass on these sample bottles to us at Leaf Candle Co. We then get to work - de-labelling (the most satisfying process!), cleaning and preparing the bottles for their transformation. Once ready, they're relabeled, packaged up with some rattan reeds and sent off to start their new life: bringing joy to people's homes as sweet smelling reed diffusers. -
What is Leaf Candle Co all about, and how does sustainability shape your approach to creating home fragrances?
Leaf Candle Co. launched with a small candle range: upcycling humble tin cans into amazing smelling soy candles. I started Leaf Candle Co. with the intention of creating a mindful and sustainable candle and home fragrance brand. I had a candle obsession and loved the creative process of blending scents, melting wax and creating beautiful smelling home fragrance products. There were two large motivators for me to use upcycled and recyclable vessels for our candles: the first was when I learned that due to the tempering process used to make glass candle jars, candle glassware cannot be recycled. The second was learning that a large amount of household recycling in Australia ends up stockpiled in warehouses or in landfill. These two major factors percolated and eventually Leaf Candle Co. was born out of a desire to rethink and repurpose, before disposing of perfectly good vessels. -
At the core of it all: an upcycled product does not need to compromise on quality, functionality or style: waste can be beautiful. Our hope is to encourage our customers to think creatively about what they do with their waste products, and maybe we can keep some waste out of landfill and spark some creativity in others at the same time.
Want to find out more on the Leaf Candle Co range: Learn more here.