ReCo Co-founders
Our Story
Meet Danling Xiao and Anett Petrovics, Co-founders of ReCo. Here’s a humble story about us.
It’s A Love Story For The Planet
Hi! We're Danling and Anett, living in Rosebery NSW with our 15-year-old pure white cat, Colour.
We've been together for 10 years, and it has been a growth journey with ups and downs, exploring our differences as we got to know one another and ourselves. Our love and connection have pushed us to reflect, grow and heal.
As the years go by, we grow a sense of responsibility and empathy for the world. We know we have a mission to heal the world. ReCo embodies our shared dreams and aspirations.
2015–2017
Where It All Begins: An Accidental Global Success
In 2015, Danling quit her full-time job to focus on her wellbeing and mental health. As a meditation practice, Danling used fruit and vegetables to make small sculptures as she prepared dinner.
Within the first two months, the photos of these sculptures caught the global media, including Mashable and Huffpost. Danling’s Instagram account @mundane_matters went viral and received millions of views.
The attention made Danling realise her responsibility as a creative. With Anett’s support (and eating lots of veggie offcuts for dinner!), Danling continued to explore the meanings of her work, and carried on learning and sharing about sustainable living with tens and thousands of people on Instagram – every day for almost two years.
2017–2019
Wasteland: Recycled Marine Debris Art Installation
Wasteland was inspired by the story of 12,000 tonnes of orange peels turning a lifeless site into a jungle in Costa Rica.
Between 2017 and 2019, we built the first art installation in Australia that turned marine debris into commercially produced products. Working with local companies and volunteers, we manufactured thousands of spheres using marine debris collected from the Great Barrier Reef, and raised them to the 25-metre tall ceiling at Sydney Customs House in Circular Quay.
The project was supported by the City of Sydney Art & About, and attracted more than 50,000 visitors to visit the installation and learn about marine pollution.
Learning From Wasteland:
We Cannot Recycle Our Way To The Future
Not all marine debris can be recycled, and there is a lot of trash.
Marine debris is litter that ends up in oceans. In the batch we had for Wasteland, there was a large percentage of unrecyclable items, such as pieces that contain foreign matters, broken pieces, fishing net, degraded mixed materials.
Most recycling requires virgin plastic to maintain product quality.
Plastic degrades in oceans. To produce Wasteland, we added 40% of virgin plastic and a small orange batch in the mix of the marine debris, to make sure the product is durable and maintain stability in use.
The most efficient solution is simply to avoid plastic waste in the first place.
Why create the problem and then try to solve it? Cleaning up marine debris is not easy. Wasteland inspired us to search for a better solution to help reduce waste. It leads us to creating the ReCo refill delivery system.
2019–2021
ReCo Pilot: Working As A Couple
In late 2019, we started our first trial testing our refill delivery system with 20 friends living in Sydney’s Inner West. In 2020, during the pandemic, we launched ReCo, with Anett officially coming on board as a co-founder.
What we dreamt of as a meaningful collaboration quickly turned out to be the most challenging emotional rollercoaster. Not only we had to cope with the stress from COVID, but we also had to overcome the new challenge of being a couple putting all the bets in our own business and working together, seven days a week.
There were many make-or-break moments in our relationship – we misunderstood each other, we argued, we screamed, but in the end, we learned to let go of our ego, support each other, and be better collaborators and partners.
2022
Boomerang Labs:
Circular Economy Start-up Accelerator
In 2022, we were one of the nine start-ups accepted into Australia’s first circular economy start-up accelerator, Boomerang Labs. We had the opportunity to learn from the industry’s best, including Boomerang Labs’s co-founders Anna Minns and Jason Graham, mentors and partner, EY.
Through the Federal Government’s Boosting Female Founders initiative, we also had the opportunity to learn from Trena Blair (Founder, FD Global). This chapter has opened up many opportunities for us, and encouraged us to keep pursuing our dream.
Now
Trekking Our Path: Never Give Up Our Mission
Innovation needs financial support to fuel growth. The reality for a circular economy start-up is that government funding only funds recycling initiatives, and most private funding in Australia requires us to be in a much more mature stage to avoid risks.
But we are determined to create our own reality. We continue to fund ReCo through our own efforts, partners' support and our design practice, Impact Collective.
We firmly believe what we do is one of the cleanest ways to tackle the waste crisis and carbon emissions. The many challenges we've been through over the years have only made us stronger, and more determined to pursue our mission – from a place of love, care and responsibility.
Now It's Only The Beginning
Organisations Who Have Supported Us
We thank our customers, collaborators, mentors, clients, friends and family for their support.
ReCo acknowledges the traditional custodians of the land upon which we live and work, the Gadigal people of the Eora Nation and pay our respects to their elders past, present and emerging.
ReCo acknowledges the traditional custodians of the land upon which we live and work, the Gadigal people of the Eora Nation and pay our respects to their elders past, present and emerging.