When it comes to hygiene products, sometimes we use non-biodegradable products without any regret. But plastic or non-biodegradable packaging or chemicals can harm our mother earth. Each year on average, 1 million tons of sanitary pads waste is generated in India. So, the sanitary waste generated by every woman during her entire life is huge and affects land in adverse ways. Saathi, is a purpose-driven manufacturing company that makes hygiene products that are eco-friendly and biodegradable. Ahmedabad-based Saathi is a startup whose main motto is to help women and the environment at the same time. They established themselves as innovators in the use of alternative materials and zero-waste production. Their mission is to make hygiene products that are good for the body and environment and community.
Saathi was founded in 2014 and started it’s operations from 2015 onwards. Four amazing people Kristin Kagetsu, Tarun Bothra, Amrita Saigal, and Grace Kane – graduates from MIT, Harvard, and Nirma University came together to create this eco-friendly, compostable sanitary napkins using locally sourced banana fibers, which is one of the most absorbent natural material. They were inspired by the idea of improving women’s access to sanitary pads in India.
Tarun says, “ We are not only running a business, we care a lot about the health of the women who use the product, and its environmental sustainability. We have been educating women in urban and rural areas about the negative impacts of unhygienic traditional methods like cloth pads. Menstruation is now talked about more often in the media and not only women but even men understand the importance of menstrual hygiene”.
Conventional pads are mainly made of plastic and Chlorine-bleached wood pulp. These are not good for the skin and take almost 600 years to degrade. And when it is disposed off by burning, it generates Carbon Dioxide and other toxic fumes. This is why they decided to increase access to affordable, eco-friendly, and non-toxic sanitary pads across India.
Tarun added, “We are upcycling agricultural waste. Nearly all of the waste produced in our manufacturing facility is biodegradable and compostable. Our cradle-to-cradle approach to manufacturing helps us minimize waste and maximize social and environmental impact throughout the entire product life cycle.”
One must really appreciate Saathi’s founders who came up with this unique yet awesome concept. They have this amazing combination of engineering background and relevant industry experience. Talking about founders, Kristin Kagsetu, the CEO, is a graduate of MIT, she had commercialized and launched sustainable natural dye crayon made by local artisans in Uttarakhand, India. She was passionate about making a product that is made from natural material and impacted women.
To handle economic issues, Saathi sells its pads in rural areas at low cost and for-profit in urban areas. In villages, it is distributed in biodegradable, organic packaging and in urban areas boxes are used. Dell Technology has played a very important role in Saathi’s journey from concept to scale up.
In 2016, they launched their One million Pads initiative which focused on expanding access to sanitary pads for women in the rural side of Jharkhand by partnering with NGOs in this region. Now as more people are understanding their concern and main motto, how Saathi pads are impacting the environment and the women positively, they believe they are very close to reach their goal of creating awareness about menstrual hygiene across India. They won National Big Entrepreneurship Award in 2017 including the Global Cleantech Innovation Program 2017, the Asia Social Innovation Award 2017, the 3M Young Innovators Challenge 2016, and the Harvard Business School New Venture Competition, 2014. They are now working hard for mass production and looking for a brand ambassador to help them promote their product and vision.
Today, Saathi pads are sold online and are also available in retail stores in Goa and Ahmedabad. So, at last, I will suggest my readers and my friends to try it owing to their non-irritable nature and as for me, I am definitely going to give it a shot this month!
– Composed by Shreya Roy
