PadCare: an eco-sanitary napkin disposal & recycling

Annually 12bn used sanitary napkins get generated in India from which 98% goes to water-bodies & Landfills. It takes 800 years to decompose single  napkin. Globally 152mn women infected by urinary tract due to the unhygienic environment at washrooms & 60% waste keepers are infected due to poor handling of hazardous waste. Current practices lead to harmful environmental consequences & entail long term economic burden in the form of health & pollution. We are solving the unaddressed issue of unhygienic & pollution causing disposal of sanitary napkins by developing worlds 1st decentralized chemo-mechanical sanitary waste disposal & recycling system. The unit disposes of the sanitary napkin instantly, odorless and economically without burning. We are collecting the treated waste from sites & making raw packaging material from the waste. We are changing the lives of million urban women & waste picker by providing pathogenic lock, hygienic environment with circular product cycle.

In India alone, 121 million females use disposable sanitary napkins that generate 1 billion pad on a monthly basis and it takes 800 years to decompose single sanitary napkin. In India 1 in every 10 females are infected by urinary tract infection due to the unhygienic environment at washrooms. The dumping of used pads in the bin are the primary source of e-Coli, Staphylococcus & other pathogens. 60% of Indian waste pickers are infected by skin diseases due to poor handling of hazardous waste. In India nearly 23% of girls drop-out of school annually due to lack of proper menstrual disposal facilities

Currently, only scientific method to dispose of the soiled sanitary waste is incineration which is expensive to build, operate, and maintain. The high costs associated with this method of waste disposal may encourage waste generators to seek other alternatives like land-filling, dumping for dealing with their waste.

Therefore, we are solving the challenges like unhygienic environment at female washrooms, pollution, women & waste keeper empowerment in urban cities.

We are serving females having age between 12-46 years old from school, colleges, hostels, hospitals, corporate offices, airports. Also, the solution is improving the lives of under-served waste keeper population by improving their dignity and health.

We are developing the padcare unit by keeping our front & back end user at the center. We did 750+ surveys in India to understand pain issues of users and waste keepers along with their current behavior of disposal.

Considering the female users our solution gives them instant and ease of disposal by providing a complete hygienic environment. Designed a touch less machine for smooth UI and UX. Waste pickers don’t have to carry the waste by using the bare hand, also we are providing a pathogenic lock to the waste. We are recycling the treated waste to make raw packaging material.

We at padcare labs developed decentralized, portable, instant washroom fit able sanitary napkin disposal unit that gives 100%* bacterial lock. We are using novel chemo-mechanical method and reverse osmosis for de-swelling of superabsorbent polymer that is assisted by efficient mechanical shredding. The waste coming from the process is partially segregated by using material density difference. We have developed the method where we can completely recycle the used treated sanitary waste.

The solution has just 3 simple working steps-

• User has to move hand over the sensor to open the inlet flap and put the pad inside as per their natural way of disposal.
• The pad detector senses the pad & simultaneous shredding-sterilization starts for 30 seconds. Where reverse osmosis takes place due to the chemical properties of a solution.
• The treated waste gets collected, partially segregated, liquid separated by using gravity separation method. At the end of day waste keeper comes, removes the treated waste & handover to us for recycling.

The product can dispose of a single pad in 30 seconds and 15 pads in a cycle. It gives 99.999% ( 5 logs bacterial reduction ) with a lock against HIV, HBV. It locks 100% e-coli which is the reason for UTI. The cost to dispose of the pad is just 0.002 $. From a single treated pad, we can make 5 A4 size papers.

The step of using the novel chemo mechanical method along with the reverse osmosis method for deswelling of super absorbent polymer and product-market fit i.e. washroom-based disposal solution makes the solution innovative and inclusive.

The product has novelty in terms of process and product. It disposes and upcycles the pads completely without burning them out. We are upcycling the pad using an innovative method of density difference and making paper, paver blocks & micro water storage for the trees & farms where we are completely upcycling cellulose, plastic sheets & absorbing materials. The circular cycle of the used sanitary napkin is one of the innovative steps.

We are using the following technological parts

1.Biotechnology and life science for reverse osmosis of super absorbent polymer and pathogenic lock.

2. Physical properties of the materials for partial segregation and upcycling of treated waste.

3. Internet of things to count a number of pads being disposed on a daily basis, carbon savings and provide online assistance for the product assistance. The IOT can be used to give rewards against the disposal of a napkin.

Briefly, we are solving the issue of the unhygienic environment at washrooms for women, providing health safety to the waste keepers and saving carbon footprint. We did 750+ one to one surveys to know the exact pain point of our potential users and users, their behaviors.

• Hygienic environment & health safety- The lab results and third-party testing gave us the assurance that we are getting 99.999% bacterial reduction, 100% lock against e-coli (UTI) with a neutral swage. The treated waste the government limit for disinfection of hazardous waste is 99.99%. The good aroma, instant disposal and ergonomically design of unit giving a seamless experience to users.
• Carbon savings- We are saving 5.2 kg of carbon against every pad disposed of & upcycle.
• Women empowerment- As women gets safety against UTI and disposing of the pad eco-friendly by keeping their privacy. Female waste pickers get rid of hazardous waste.

We have started closed pilot testing in Pune, India at NCL Innovation park where 100+ female’s users and 5 waste pickers are getting benefits on a daily basis. We are expecting to start the second pilot at Pune University (Women hostels) where 10000+ pads generated on a monthly basis by 1500 female students & handled by 30 waste pickers. We are targeting 10 installation in 2019 that will serve 10000 women and 80 waste pickers. Down the line of five years, the same concept can easily replicate for diaper disposal, elderly huggee’s disposal. We want to reach 1 million women within two years and 10 million within 5 years with the aim of 50% reduction in sanitary waste landfilling.

We are at technology readiness level 5 – working on technology testing & optimization. Our primary goal is to launch the product in the Indian market with a target of selling 10 units. Our short-term goal is to develop a market-ready product, pivot in different product-market fits and do the testing of the economic viability of upcycling of treated waste in real market conditions. Within 5 years we want to serve globally 1 million women on a daily basis that will require installations 1000+ padcare units. We have plans to expand the technology for different much-needed applications like diaper disposal.

The pre-pilot testing gives us confidence that we are solving the pain point in the right way by aligning user at the center. We have following challenges that we are working -

• Barrier on UI/UX as every user has different behavior of sanitary pad disposal.
• Taboo about mensuration.
• Product material selection and weight reduction.

We are expecting the following challenges down the line of 5 years-

• Financial and human resources for manufacturing, supply line, and upcycling plant.
• Uncertain government regulations on solid waste management.
• International expansion.

The SWOT analysis gives us confidence that the barrier is solvable with proper resources.

• UI/UX -Collecting as many as possible users data & feedback from pilots to understand about nature of disposal and machine interaction. The data will help us to improve our user interaction part.
• Cultural taboo- awareness about mensuration will have to do by partnering with local NGO’s, government bodies, school, and colleges.
• Product weight reduction- We are continuously working with manufacturing partners on weight reduction. Long term barriers- Financial & human resources can be solved as the company starts generating steady revenue.

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Full-time- 3

Part time- 1

Interns- 1

Consultants & partners- 3

The team has a proven track record & vision to succeed. We have combined team experience of 8+ years having expertise in machine design, product design, and micro bio.

• Ajinkya Dhariya is a mechanical engineer by qualification, machine designer & frugal innovator with 2+ years of experience in nanotechnology. He has few patents on his name. He is 1st generation innovator cum entrepreneur. He is responsible for product designing, partners relations, and chief executive.
• Sarika Kulkarni is an industrial designer with expertise in product designing and customer-centric designing. She has done masters in Philadelphia university & having 5 years of corporate experience. She worked with J&J for development of the novel design of sanitary pads. She is responsible for product, UI/UX & product-market fit.
• Aasawari is microbiologist with a year of experience in the biotech industry. We are backed by technical advisor Dr. V Premnath MIT alumnus head venture center, Business advisor Sanjay Kandivade Texas alumnus 25+ years industry expertise & Manufacturing advisor Milind Sant.

PadCare Labs has partnered with 3 organization including municipal corporations for product development & Pilot testings–

• National chemical laboratory, India – We are working with NCL for development, testing & validation of process part of innovation. Using dedicated space in NCL Innovation park for development work.
• Santool- Closely working with santool to overcome manufacturing challenges & material selections.
• Pune Municipal corporation- Partnered with PMC to set up pilots at government colleges, hostels, airports.

We are targeting prime market first, our potential customers are airports, malls, IT corporates, universities, hotels with women & waste pickers are as beneficiaries. We are providing the product as well as service to our customers by giving them PadCare unit, required consumables & maintenance as per their demand. Potential users are getting benefits in terms of health & hygiene. Waste pikers getting additional benefits of dignity improvement and empowerment. Customer is getting benefit for add on service, tax redemption under corporate social responsibility. Indirectly the municipal corporation’s savings a million of rupees in terms of lands & supply chain.

Primary we are planning & testing to have three B-models depending product- Market fit-

• Pay as per use – Corporates, Malls, colleges.
• Strategic partnership with sanitary waste manufactures – J&J, P&G – Free disposal machine at strategic places with co-branding.
• Direct sell & margin.

PadCare Labs won several grants & awards. The technology has received backing from the department of science & technology, India. To date, we are developing the product & testing it by using the grant amount. We are looking for an angel investment. We have received an order from the state government for pilot testing’s that will generate revenue. At long term, the margins of product & consumables will make us sustainable.

We are excited to be a part of solves community to share learnings with innovators who are doing similar kind of work. Solve peer networks like innovators, mentors, investors & MIT ecosystem who can help us to scale up the product  and to achieve a sustainable model with better impact. Also, the monetary resources help us to install minimum 50 products in the pilots, team expansion.

It is our goal to grow together, empower million number of women & improve the dignity of waste pickers. The MIT recognition will give us an international platform for indigenous innovations that can replicate easily.

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• MIT Design lab - We would like to collaborate with design lab for improvement in Product design, UI & UX as women-centric design is our goal. We would like to have team collaborations for design.
• MIT global – We would like to apply for social entrepreneurship boot camp conducted by global MIT to learn measurement of Impact matrix.
• Industry partnerships – We would like to develop a partnership with Johnson & Johnson or P&G to assist collaborative sanitary waste management system. 

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In the world 150 mn+ women faced urinary tract infection with 10 % death rate. The primary reason is the unhygienic environment at public washrooms. 70% waste keepers are infected with skin diseases that are completely avoidable by using proper preventive methods at waste generations.

The padcare unit is enhancing the life of women working in cities, waste keepers by providing a standard way of disposal & recycling of sanitary waste. The award money will use to install padcare machines at public-private washrooms, to do awareness about menstrual hygiene management & provide reward base mechanism for safe disposal. The 100 padcare units can save 15000 women form UT infection and increase livelihood. Similarly, due to the upcycling of waste, pollution of land & water bodies can be reduced and improve the health of cities.

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PadCare Labs is working with the mission to empower women health & uplift waste keepers with technological innovations. The $25000 given in award money will totally use to install minimum 50 PadCare units across 5 girls hostels & 5 women colleges. The 50 pad care units can handle 3000+ used pads daily & can give benefits to 5000 girls & women along with 100 female waste keepers. 

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We at padcare labs developing women-centric product to solve females monthly pain point of sanitary waste disposal & to give lock against urinary tract infection (UTI). The solution is enlacing the life of women as well as improving the dignity of waste picker. We would like to have a strategic collaboration with J&J.

The award money will use for to install minimum of 60 PadCare units in India & outside India that can serve 6000+ women daily & 100+ female waste keepers. Similarly, fraction of grant will use to optimize the product & process along with team expansion.