Saathi eco-friendly diapers

Diapers are an essential personal hygienic product for babies since they urinate more frequently than adults, and are unable to manage on their own. Like adult diapers and sanitary pads, diapers are majorly made of plastics. Like western countries, now in India, it is becoming a trend to keep babies in diapers for almost 24 hours. This puts them into developing various skin infections like rashes, redness in the private parts, itching, irritation. Almost every baby gets a diaper rash. Diaper dermatitis is common in almost 50% of all the babies and many children have to visit a doctor to get treatment for skin rashes. Also, these diapers, especially the premium quality, are very expensive. The ones which are of low rates are not of very good quality and can’t even be put for 6 hours. 

There are cotton reusable diapers available in the market but they fail to keep babies safe for 6 hours as they say. There are very few companies who have eco-friendly or biodegradable diapers available in the market. 

Disposable plastic based diapers create more landfill waste when disposed of. A baby is likely to go through between 5,000 and 6,000 disposable diapers before becoming potty trained. A 2014 Environmental Protection Agency report found that disposable diapers account for 7 percent of nondurable household waste in landfills. Studies indicate that diapers in landfills take up to 500 years to degrade, creating methane and other toxic gasses in the process, and their manufacture uses volatile chemicals that also end up in the ecosystem.

We are planning to develop biodegradable, eco-friendly diapers for the babies.Our objective is to make eco-friendly diapers available in the market so that parents have an eco-friendly choice within an affordable price range. We want to give both skin friendly solutions as well reduce burden on the environment by reducing the amount of plastic waste and CO2 emissions. Saathi has developed a patented technology to process natural fiber into a highly absorbent material. Our first product is 100% biodegradable and compostable sanitary pads made from banana fiber which is one of the most absorbent natural fibers and abundant in India. Unlike wood pulp or cotton, it is an agricultural by-product and does not require additional land usage. We are going to use the same process and technology to manufacture diapers which will not contain any toxic chemicals. It would be both comfortable to wear and will not generate any plastic waste and CO2 emission once disposed of. 

The solution is designed for the babies to  whom diapers are one of the most essential personal hygiene items. By replacing plastic made diapers, we expect that they will be able to adapt to the eco-friendly baby diapers which will not give any rashes to their skin, will not have any redness on their skin and will not develop any long term skin related problems.. Currently, they are using plastic made diapers which is locking the urine inside for long hours and due to the moisture developed inside, they can easily develop rashes, which is not the case in biodegradable diapers. 

Tarun Bothra, CTO, is a graduate of Nirma University and brings technical,business experience and local knowledge to develop the product and set up manufacturing. He has demonstrated his leadership throughout the R&D, product development, and production process. He is also responsible for compliance. Kristin Kagetsu, CEO, is a graduate of MIT and previously launched another sustainable, eco-friendly product in India from locally sourced natural materials: natural-dye crayons made in Uttarakhand, India. She is experienced in product development with alternative materials and production as well as project management. 

Both of them have experience of developing biodegradable and compostable sanitary pads from patented technology which is being sold across the country and addressing both urban and rural women. They have experience of about 7 years manufacturing the sanitary pads with the same technology. 

We want to apply with the following objective:

• Getting connected with the support group, relevant investors so that we can present our design (solution).

• Gaining investment from the interested funders, investors for the mass production of the diapers.

• Reaching out to diverse people to promote, make them aware of our product.

• The fund awarded would help us to recruit people for sales and production of the product. 

Our diapers are totally eco-friendly which means it is biodegradable. Still, biodegradable diapers are not easily available in the market. We want to make that change and provide the people with the choices to choose from, which is better for their child’s skin and health. 

Within next 5 years, we want to achieve the following milestones:

1. Starting mass production of the diapers.

2. Recruiting rural women in the manufacturing unit for production.

3. Identification of the market for the products.

4. Marketing of the products.

5. Onboarding the products in e-commerce platforms.

6. Start selling diapers for urban based customers.

7. Developing partnership with NGOs who are working with rural communities (mother and child) for distribution of diapers.

8. Reducing plastic waste and Co2 emission by replacing plastic based diapers.

Once we start our production, we would like to measure our progress in the following manner:

1. Number of diapers have been manufactured and sold.

2. Number of babies have not experienced rashes or skin problems.

3. Amount of plastic waste has been reduced.

4. Amount of C02 emission has been avoided.

Activities:

1. Production of eco-friendly diapers. 

2. Selling diapers to both urban and rural populations. 

Output: 

1. There would be an awareness amongst the people about eco-friendly diapers.

Outcome: 

1. There would be listed customers who are interested in purchasing Saathi eco-friendly diapers.

Saathi has developed a patented technology to process natural fiber into highly absorbent materials. which enables us to make not only sanitary pads but other absorbent products as well.

Our solution is not only to be offered for the urban babies but also would be catered to the rural babies. To include every child, we would be going to subsidize the price for rural babies. We will continue recruiting rural underprivileged women into our business model and provide them with employment opportunities.

We have an inclusive and holistic business model. We source banana and bamboo fiber from farmers, which we will process to make diapers in our factory and then sell to women in urban areas which subsidizes the diapers for the babies in the rural areas. 

With the support of the grant received from this challenge, we would be able to hire staffs in the marketing and sales division. We would be presenting our solution to different investors who are interested in investing in eco-friendly products. We would be participating with competition, different challenges. We can design campaigns to raise funds to donate diapers for the babies in rural areas. 

Our first product is 100% biodegradable and compostable sanitary pads from banana and bamboo fibers. We have been selling our pads in various e-commerce platforms and through eco-retail stores from where we earn revenue. We are also selling our products to corporates and NGOs are also taking from us at subsidy rate. We have raised funds, received awards and grants. Some of them are following:

St.Andrew Prize for the Environment 2019, UK

Village Global 2018, US

Expo Live 2020 2018, Dubai

Finalist Cartier Women’s Initiative Awards 2018, Singapore

Hello Tomorrow 2017, France

Pipeline Angels 2017, US