Saathi Biodegradable Pads, India

Project name: Saathi Biodegradable Pads

Project location:  India

Website: http://saathipads.com

Facebook: http://facebook.com/saathipads

Instagram: http://instagram.com/saathipads

Twitter: http://twitter.com/saathipads

Project description:

Saathi manufactures biodegradable sanitary pads made from banana fiber to reduce pad waste, and make pads more accessible. Banana fiber is one of the most absorbent, abundant natural fibers in India. Saathi locally sources banana fibre and other biodegradable materials to create pads that degrade within 6 months of disposal- 1200 times faster than plastic pads. Each woman purchasing Saathi pads saves 60 kg of pad waste over her lifetime, and subsidizes pads for low-income women.

Saathi positively impacts women, agriculture, and the local economy. Our sales in the urban market fund a 75% subsidy for NGOs who distribute pads in rural and urban slum communities. Banana farmers earn additional by selling an agricultural byproduct that they previously discarded. Saathi is proud to locally source and manufacture biodegradable pads that are good for the body, the environment, and the community.

Goal and purpose of the project:

Saathi manufactures biodegradable sanitary pads made from banana fibre to reduce pad waste, and make pads more accessible. In 2016, women in India produced 150,000 tons of plastic sanitary pad waste. Saathi biodegradable pads degrade within 6 months, and eliminate 60 kg of plastic pad waste per woman, over the course of her lifetime. Saathi’s innovative business model also increases low-income women’s access to pads. When women purchase Saathi pads, they subsidize the cost of pads for rural women.

Motivation of the applicant / applicant team:

Saathi was founded in 2015 by graduates from MIT, Harvard and Nirma University. Amrita, CFO, was working for a major pad manufacturer when she was inspired to increase women’s access to pads in India. The pads needed to be biodegradable because most waste management systems in India were ill-equipped to manage large heaps of plastic waste. Along with her fellow co-founders, Kristin, Grace and Tarun, she looked for a locally abundant, super absorbent material to make pads: banana fibre. Together, they developed a biodegradable sanitary pad using locally sourced banana fibre.

Use of prize money:

In April 2017, we launched nationwide online in India. Within the next nine months, we will ramp up our production capacity 100x and be able to grow sales by expanding our distribution into retail. We will use the prize funds to help fund our scale-up, including a fully-automated machine and social media marketing campaign. At scale, hundreds of thousands of women will be using biodegradable sanitary pads made from banana fibre that are good for their bodies, environment and community.