Saathi's 100% biodegradable and compostable sanitary pads

Only 18% of women in India use sanitary napkins and generate 100k+ tons of pad waste each year.  Pads made of plastic or wood pulp, which causes women skin irritation & is harmful to the environment. Plastic pads take 600 years to degrade, are burned for disposal, generating CO2 and toxic fumes. Saathi has developed 100% biodegradable and compostable sanitary pad made from banana fiber which is one of the most absorbent natural fibers and abundant in India. Our all-natural pads do not contain bleach or chemicals to minimise skin irritation and release of toxins into the environment upon disposal. We plan to expand globally to provide access to biodegradable sanitary napkins.

In India, 84% of women lack access to sanitary napkins. Women who use cloth are often not able to properly sterilize them because of societal taboos against washing and drying them in public. The key problem Saathi addresses is to provide a hygienic, effective alternative to improve the lives of these women without creating any negative environmental impact. This is most significant;  the small percentage of Indian women using sanitary pads today already generates 100,000+ tons of sanitary pad waste each year - a figure that could rise to 1,000,000+ tons if disposable pads were used by all Indian women of menstruating age. Plastic pads take 600 years to degrade, and worse, are frequently burned for disposal, generating CO2 & toxic fumes. 

Latin American and the Caribbean region produces more than 400 million tons of plastic waste every year and 36% of it is single-use plastic. This is creating economic, environmental and health problems for generations to come.

We have two types of customers:

• Middle & upper-class urban women- We are selling through our e-commerce website www.saathipads.com, We have been conducting customer surveys, design thinking workshops to take feedback and make our product better and more comfortable for our customers. 

• NGOs that purchase our pads to distribute among women in the villages in which they operate. We conduct menstrual hygiene workshops to aware them about access to Saathi pads and our conduction One MIllion Pads Camp[aign where we are distributing pads in rural areas of Jharkhand.

Saathi pads are accessible to all women with our two-pronged pricing scheme. Our business model is to sell pads at a premium in urban India and use that to sell our pads at a cost in rural India. We are scaling up to serve other markets, Latin America is our interest because Latin American and the Caribbean region produces more than 400 million tons of plastic waste every year and 36% of it is single-use plastic. This is creating economic, environmental and health problems for generations to come. The aware citizens are looking for a natural and sustainable option.

Saathi has developed 100% biodegradable and compostable sanitary pad 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. Our all-natural pads do not contain bleach or chemicals to minimize skin irritation and release of toxins into the environment upon disposal. Not only are they more comfortable and safer for the user as they don’t contain bleach which has carcinogenic dioxins, Saathi pads degrade within 6 months of disposal, 1200 times faster than conventional pads, and eliminate the need for incineration, reducing CO2 production. We eliminate 60 kg of pad waste, per woman, in her lifetime. Saathi is part of the circular economy where everyone is positively impacted and our goal is to create hygiene products that are good for the body, environment, and community. 

We plan to revolutionize the hygiene industry by manufacturing products sustainably and responsibly. Saathi uses the principal of the circular economy where everyone is positively impacted. We have a diverse team which helps to indicate the changes we need to make in our product. We are also planning to create diverse campaigns as well which help our customers feel more included.

Value proposition of Saathi pads are as follows:

Affordable

• 55% cheaper than other premium health-conscious products

Better : 

• 100% natural, chemical-free, and non-toxic

• more comfortable and gentle to the skin,

• 100% Compostable and Biodegradable

• No health side effects from using this product

Faster : 

• More absorbent

Theory of Change

Saathi is using urban sales to subsidize pads for rural women. Saathi has already reached 6950+ women and will increase access to pads for 1.5 million women by 2023.

1. Amount of plastic waste  and C02 emission saved

2. The number of women has access to Saathi Sanitary pads and Menstrual hygiene awareness.

3. Number of low-income women employed and extra income increased to farmers

4. Reduce plastic waste & Co2 Emission

We have already saved 10MT of plastic waste and saved 16 MT of CO2 emissions. By 2023, Saathi will reduce plastic waste by 9,212 MT and CO2 emissions by 10,849MT

• Reaching Women for Saathi pads

Saathi is using urban sales to subsidize pads for rural women. Saathi has already reached 6500+ women and will increase access to pads for 1.5 million women by 2023.

•  Generate Employment for Banana Fiber & Rural women

We buy agro-waste from banana tree farmers, who can earn extra income by selling the waste. Already increased banana farmers income by 5M INR. We also employ underprivileged women in the manufacturing of our pads and we aim to employ 73,517 women by 2023.

The goals are to expand to new countries, launch new products and more efficient manufacturing technology to scale up the production. We aim to reduce CO2 incineration and emission, increase farmer income and employ more women from rural backgrounds.

Below are the details of market barriers:

Awareness

Shipping on product

Sales and Distribution

New Entrant

Awareness: Due to lack of proper awareness about biodegradable pads among customers, some companies are using oxo-biodegradable plastic which is more harmful because it breaks the plastic into microparticles which can never be recovered.

Shipping on the product: Currently we are selling Saathi pads through online website www.saathipads.com , where we are imposing delivery charges on customers which sometimes impacts our conversion. We are in talks with some Eco-Friendly retail stores to place products in major metro cities. We have made success with it and is currently available in many eco stores. 

Sales and Distribution: We receive 10-12 inquiries every week regarding distributorship and partnership from India and worldwide, currently we are looking for hiring more candidates in Sales and Distribution to manage all those queries and follow up on past leads.

New Entrants: As everyone is better aware that Eco-Friendly market is one of the largest growing markets in India and 81% of people are inclined to buy Eco-Friendly products. During the past few months, there have been a lot of small entrants in the market with their biodegradable pads technology. Though Saathi is patent-pending and has a unique USP which is one of its kind. There is a lot of greenwashing companies doing with regards to biodegradable and eco-friendly products due to which people are assuming all the companies claiming eco-friendliness is genuine and buying from them, which made 

The Latin American and the Caribbean region produces more than 400 million tons of plastic waste every year and 36% of it is single-use plastic. This is creating economic, environmental and health problems for generations to come. The Female population of Latin America is 32,17,49,467 which produces tons of sanitary waste every year. The market opportunity is to provide access to these women of sanitary pads which are 100% biodegradable and compostable.

Full time-12

Part-time -0

Workers-17

• Kristin Kagetsu, CEO,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 products as well as project management. 

• 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. 

• Ranu Kala, Marketing is a Masters graduate in Communications with 4 years of experience in the field of marketing communications.

• Maulik Gupta, Marketing is a Master in Science with PGDM in marketing and has 7 years of experience in marketing and communications

• Rahul Patel, Supply Chain, is a BTech graduate in Mechanical Engineering with an experience of 3 years in supply chain.

• Shreyans Jain, a post-graduate in Rural Management from IRMA with an experience of over 2.5 years in sales of WASH products. 

• Heta Sewak, Data analyst, is M.Sc. and B.Sc. Statistics and 1 year of experience as Research Assistant at MICA, Ahmedabad.

• Khushali Samriya, Public Relations is a B.E. in Electronics and Communication with a 1-year experience in the field. 

• Sagar Sanghani, Production, is a B.E. Mechanical with an experience of 5 years in production.

• Annapurna Prajapati, HR, postgraduate from LJMU in the UK and having 5 years corporate experience.

• Teekeshwar Sinha, Design Engineer.

• Karishma Hadiyal- Admin and customer care executive and having 6+ years of corporate experience. 

For our OneMillionpads initiative, we’ve partnered with NGO, Ekal Vidyalaya & Arogya Foundation, to distribute pads in the villages. 

Ecommerce:  Amazon, Inkahaani (Dubai), Ecotrunk(renewed), Ecohoy, Greenobazaar

Retail store partners:  Pretty Vogue(Kerala), Zero Waste Eco Store(Hyderabad), Green Straw (Ahmedabad)

Saathi pads are accessible to all women with our two-pronged pricing scheme. Our business model is to sell pads at a premium in urban India, to sell our pads at cost in rural India. Currently, pads are available online at the website and various e-commerce platforms and eco-stores. As a benchmark, one of the premium brands in the market sells for 45 Rs/pad whereas Saathi sells for 22.5 Rs/pad making us extremely competitive. As  pads are a necessity & market is growing, we will be economically sustainable because more women will be using pads.

We will become financially sustainable by selling our sanitary napkins at a premium cost in urban sales and at a subsidized rate in rural areas. We will be raising funds to scale up production so that we can reach more customers globally. We also look towards expanding our product line to expand the customers we can reach.

IDB Group and Saathi align on a similar mission of improving lives. Saathi’s business model creates a cradle to cradle impact in the lives of farmers, women and the environment. Along with the award amount, IDB Group can help us in our expansion in Latin America and Carribean. So that we can reduce single-use plastic, which is a critical development issue in the region.

We would like to partner with various distributors, eco-stores and e-commerce stores in Latin America and Carribean to provide access to our product there. Along with that, we also look for partnering with various branding and marketing agencies, media and influencers to build brand value in the new market.