Tara Olivo, Associate Editor06.03.21
Innovation has been strong in the natural products space. Consumers’ increasing appetites for products that feature what they assume are safer, more natural ingredients that make less environmental impact has led to an abundance of new offerings in a range of industries, and this trend has been particularly apparent in the disposable hygiene market within the last decade.
While natural fibers like cotton and wood pulp have been used in some absorbent hygiene products for decades, the Honest Company has been credited with putting ingredient transparency and an eco-friendly focus in the disposable baby diaper market on the map. Since Honest’s launch in 2012, there’s been a proliferation of newcomers entering not just the baby diaper market, but also feminine care and adult care. Most of these new brands are starting off through direct-to-consumer (DTC) channels via their own websites, using the internet and social media to gain attention from consumers.
Pricie Hanna, managing partner of Price Hanna Consultants, continues to see more direct-to-consumer brands competing for consumers who value sustainable materials in all three categories of absorbent hygiene products, although the focus on sustainable materials is more of a new phenomenon in the adult incontinence category. “Millennials and younger consumers are driving this trend, but the general public is increasingly concerned about sustainability,” she explains. “Besides direct-to-consumer brands, we also see the major manufacturers and their brands following this strategy in the baby and femcare categories. This is not yet observable from the major consumer brands in the adult incontinence category, but we expect that to change in the next year or two.”
Even with a wide range of new innovations in the natural hygiene space, the question about what truly makes a disposable hygiene product eco-friendly remains. In some instances, brands are touting materials that are derived from natural sources such as wood pulp, cotton, sugarcane and bamboo, while other companies are describing what their diapers are made without: chlorine, alcohol, dyes and fragrances. And in some cases, companies such as Ontex, P&G and Unicharm, are focusing on end-of-life solutions for their products through either recycling or composting.
Natalia Richer, diaper and absorbent hygiene products consultant for Diaper Testing International, says some of these companies are focusing on bio-based polymers, such as polyethylene derived from ethanol, while others are focusing on plant-based nonwovens such as blends of viscose or cotton. “Bio-based polymers, chemically speaking, will be no different from regular polymers, except their sourcing will come from a renewable source vs. non-renewable fossil fuels,” she explains, adding that most companies are using the term “plant-based” to convey their stance in this space. “Consumers often relate the term ‘plant-based’ with it being safer to use, have less ‘toxic’ substances, and better for the planet, regardless of whether their assertion is accurate or not.”
Cotton and bamboo are widely recognized by consumers as safe, natural materials, according to Colin Hanna, director of market research, Price Hanna Consultants. “Nonwovens made from bamboo viscose for topsheets and backsheets in baby diapers are increasingly common in the most sustainable niche products. In the feminine category, cotton is most common,” he says. “Due to media coverage of plastic pollution in the oceans, consumers are increasingly developing an anti-plastic bias that advantages plant-based alternatives.”
Best for Baby
On the baby care side, both large multinationals and smaller DTC startups are appealing to millennial parents’ desire for cleaner and safer diapers for their little ones. The increased demands for transparency and the heightened awareness of chemicals of concern have pushed baby diaper companies to eliminate unnecessary chemicals such as fragrances, while also replacing petroleum-derived components with plant-derived ingredients.
Procter & Gamble’s (P&G) entry into the natural category happened in 2018 with the launch of the Pampers Pure Collection which includes diapers and wipes made with premium cotton. Just last month the consumer products giant expanded this line with the launch of Pampers Pure Protection Hybrid Diapers, its first diapering system that is part reusable, part disposable.
The diaper system includes a disposable insert made with a plant-based liner, enriched with shea butter and other thoughtfully selected materials. It features Pampers’ trusted absorbent core and high leg cuffs to help prevent leaks. A “one size fits most” super soft reusable cloth covers made with premium fabrics, adjustable leg elastics and waist snaps that will last through multiple changes. The machine washable covers are easy to clean with simple laundering instructions.
In addition to this new launch, Pampers says its business overall continues to innovate toward more sustainable diapering solutions to use 30% less diapering materials per baby over their diapering time. Over the past 25 years, Pampers has reduced its disposable diaper weight by 50% and its packaging by 70%, generating less use of resources in its products.
Kimberly-Clark put its own twist on the natural baby diaper in 2019 with the launch of Huggies Special Delivery diapers, which feature a baby-side liner and waistband made with fibers derived from plant-based materials such as sugarcane. Similarly, in August, Huggies launched a plant-based training pant called Pull-Ups New Leaf, which are also made with ingredients like sugarcane and fluff pulp.
This month, Kudos, a new baby diaper brand that’s been in the works for two and a half years, is launching with the aim to be the most skin-friendly, high-performance plant-based diaper on the market. Amrita Saigal, an MIT grad, began developing the brand Kudos in early 2019.
Saigal started her career at Procter & Gamble, working on the engineering and manufacturing side for brands such as Always pads and Gillette razors. She left P&G to start her first company in India—Saathi Pads—which makes biodegradable sanitary pads out of waste banana tree fiber. After leaving Saathi and returning to the U.S., friends of hers started asking if she could bring the same innovation she applied to pads in India to diapers in the U.S.
“I kept asking my friends, ‘What is the issue that you’re having with diapers?’ and I kept getting the answer, ‘I feel like I’m constantly having to choose between performance or natural, I can’t have them both,’” Saigal recalls. “They felt like they had to make a compromise between what would get them the most sleep and what was good for the environment.”
While working on Kudos, Saigal and her team considered what eco-friendly diaper brands had already developed. “These brands have their core made out of sustainably harvested wood pulp, but if you’re looking at the topsheet and backsheet, those are still nonwoven spunbond polypropylene materials,” she says. “I think existing brands have taken a step in the right direction, removing a lot of the added chemicals and fragrances that you find in traditional disposables, and using sustainably harvested wood pulp in the core. But then you’re still having your baby sitting in plastic all day—everything is still plastic minus the core.”
In contrast, Kudos is replacing more conventional petroleum-derived components of the diaper with plant-derived materials, especially when it comes to what’s touching baby’s skin.
“Our consumer research showed that whether it’s food, clothing, or baby products like diapers, today’s parents are looking for safe and sustainable plant-based options. Working with plant-based materials in a baby diaper presented some challenges when designing Kudos. It was critical that we understood the options available to us with nonwoven fibers and processes so we could design a diaper that would be effective, environmentally friendly and manufacturable,” says Saigal.
The diapers feature a 100% cotton topsheet, for example, which makes Kudos the first disposable diaper to have earned the cotton natural seal from Cotton Inc., which recently published the results of a clinical study showing cotton is considered hypoallergenic and safe for sensitive skin. This further solidified Kudos’ choice to use cotton as the main material touching baby’s skin.
To effectively remove moisture from the cotton topsheet, Kudos also developed a unique composite acquisition distribution layer (ADL) made from plant-based materials, as well as a green PE backsheet.
“We’re being very transparent about our materials,” Saigal says. “Are we 100% biodegradable? No diaper is. Ultimately, however, we’re committed to getting as much plastic out of the diaper as possible, and as many plant-based, skin-loving materials in.”
Healthynest, another new diaper brand, has partnered with the Environmental Working Group (EWG) to launch the first diaper to meet the EWG’s rigorous criteria for health and ingredient disclosure. The launch coincides with the publication of EWG’s new comprehensive Guide to Safer Diapers, an analysis of the chemicals and materials used in baby diapers, to help parents and caregivers sort through the vast array of product options—and related advertising claims—available on the market.
Healthynest is led by founder Shazi Visram, a member of EWG’s board of directors, who’s dedicated her life’s work to building a strong foundation for children’s health.
She started this by launching Happy Family Organics on Mother’s Day 2006, which has since become a leading organic baby food company in the U.S. Then in 2012, her son Zane was diagnosed with Autism. “Ever since then, I’ve thrown myself into learning everything I can to help him and understand the condition now affecting 1/54 children,” she says. “My goal now is to share everything I’ve learned with new parents. It turns out that eating organic is just one of the things we can do to give our kids the healthiest start. We can do so much more to clean up baby’s environment—the air he breathes, the chemicals in products that touch his delicate, permeable skin, all of which have an effect on baby’s brain development.”
Launched in December, healthynest is the world’s first and only EWG Verified diaper. Healthynest’s Diapering Program subscription pairs all of the diapers and wipes needed for the month with brain-building activities matched to baby’s age and stage.
To have an EWG Verified diaper means that each and every material included in healthynest diapers is tested by third-party labs to meet standards developed by a team of toxicologists, chemists and epidemiologists at the EWG. The criteria set forth by the EWG requires controlled sourcing of raw materials, manufacturing processes to prevent contamination and third-party testing for harmful substances such as chlorine or elemental chlorine-free bleaching agents, parabens, phthalates, VOCs, phenols, optical brighteners used to whiten, pesticides, flame-retardant chemicals and polyfluorinated chemicals, or PFAS. This means the diapers are made without BPA, phthalates, parabens, fragrance (and more), then also third-party tested in labs globally to ensure they are not contaminated by harmful environmental toxins or contaminants. The diaper has been almost three years in the making and has been tested for over 900 chemical compounds.
Claire Lloyd, founding partner of healthynest, says they wanted to create a diaper that is safe, plant-based and sustainable, while still upholding the highest standards of performance. “After all, we are talking about poop, so if we were truly going to make an impact, we needed to develop a diaper that actually works,” she says. “We saw that the plant-based diapers on the market were simply not as effective as conventional diapers, and we wanted to solve this. That is why we chose sugarcane as our plant-based ingredient. It is natural, renewable and it performs.”
Healthynest has focused on the beginning of the diaper life cycle, where it believes it can make an impact. According to Lloyd, other plant-based diaper brands focus on the end of the diaper life cycle, marketing their product as biodegradable. “But one, PLA and bamboo-based materials don’t perform as well, so they are less likely to be repurchased, and two, there is a biodegradability myth around diapers: if they are to break down, they need to be separated from the rest of the diaper and brought to a specific industrial composting facility, which most people do not have access to. If a ‘biodegradable’ diaper ends up in a landfill, it unfortunately does not biodegrade,” she says.
Healthynest focuses on the beginning of the diaper life cycle through its materials. It replaces petroleum with renewable grown sugarcane wherever possible, meaning it uses less petroleum and crude oil to make its diapers. Healthynest’s super soft outer cover is enhanced with cotton, further reducing the amount of petroleum used. It also uses Totally Chlorine Free wood pulp, 100% sourced from FSC Certified (sustainably managed) forests, and carbon neutral production.
This month a new version of the diapers, which will be enhanced with organic cotton in the outer cover, will launch. “Organic cotton is safer for baby’s skin and better for the environment,” Lloyd says. “With 80% of the world’s pesticides going to grow cotton, organic cotton is pure. Using it also means having a positive environmental impact: 90% reduction in water waste and 45% less CO2 emissions, compared to conventionally grown cotton.”
Belgian hygiene product producer Ontex is taking another approach to sustainability. Within the last few months the company announced a dual set of initiatives to tackle diaper waste.
Through a partnership with Woosh, Ontex will begin a diaper recycling program that will begin in Mechelen, Belgium, and eventually spread to other Belgian cities and throughout Europe.
Woosh is launching a delivery and collection service for Ontex’s Little Big Change diapers for nurseries. It’s starting in Mechelen, Bruges, Ghent, then deploying its services to other Belgian cities, notably Brussels in the coming months. By 2024, Woosh aims to reach 1000 nurseries in Belgium alone, and expand its service to other European countries, according to Jeff Stubbe, co-founder of Woosh.
“In Belgium today, the separate collection of diaper waste remains limited, which hinders the progress of diaper recycling. Waste companies are not motivated to invest in the recycling because there is not enough separated diaper waste. Due to the lack of recycling facilities, there’s also little incentive to separate diaper waste,” Stubbe continues.
Meanwhile, in April, Ontex and circular economy company Les Alchimistes announced they are testing an industrial scale composting of diaper pads at Les Alchimistes’ site in Pantin near Paris, France.
“Our goal is to make the separate collection and composting of used, compostable diapers a reality,” says Maïwenn Mollet, director of the Fertile Diapers program at Les Alchimistes. “We are very happy that Ontex and their brand Little Big Change are joining our mission. Ontex has the engineering knowledge and resources to design diapers that can be compostable. Our goal is to create a new circular economy loop with Ontex and other like-minded companies and to compost 500 million diapers by 2030.”
Ontex and Les Alchimistes have set up a pilot project at Les Alchimistes’ industrial composting site with the aim of proving that composting Ontex diaper pads is possible and that waste and incineration can be reduced. The project requires cooperation between different partners: from suppliers of materials, diaper manufacturers like Ontex, to waste collection and to composting partners using suitable technology.
Working with partner company gDiapers, which has 17 years of expertise in hybrid compostable diapers, the Ontex Little Big Change brand has developed a new diaper system. The system consists of a reusable outer diaper made of cotton and a disposable diaper pad which is designed to be industrially compostable.
The projects with Woosh and Les Alchimistes fit with Ontex’s ambitions and sustainability strategy for 2030 to reduce diaper waste through different technologies.
“As a major player in essential personal hygiene, we recognize the need to find alternatives to landfill and incineration for our used products. We are examining ways to reduce CO2-emissions all through their different life cycle phases. As we ourselves move towards a circular economy business model, it is a natural and logical step to work together with other companies to make our diapers more recyclable or compostable,” says Annick De Poorter, EVP for Innovation, Sustainability and Quality, Ontex.
Ontex believes its customers and consumers will be eager to participate in these programs. “Generation Z, or the population that has been born at the turn of the century, is already entering the workforce and will be the largest consumer segment by 2025. Many of these people are now too young to vote, but are already social influencers and it is clear that they are interested in products that are safe for them, but also safe for the planet,” De Poorter says.
Ontex is also seeing a significant increase in demand from retailers to include plant-based products in diapers. “A lot of smaller online brands with natural features are popping up, so their success is linked with the fact that people are looking at safe products,” she concludes.
The Future of Femcare
In recent years the rate of introduction of new menstrual care brands and products continues to redefine the category. While Always, Tampax, o.b. and private labels have been mainstays for decades, newer brands focusing on natural materials, mainly organic cotton, are changing the way feminine hygiene aisles look.
For its part, Callaly has put a novel spin on sanitary protection. The U.K.-based company’s Tampliner, made with organic cotton, is a patented feminine hygiene device that combines a tampon and a built-in mini-liner between a labia, which gives the wearer extra protection from leaks without the bulk and bunching of a bigger liner. The mini-liner is held in place by a patented virtual applicator for clean insertion and removal.
Callaly’s Tampliner recently expanded into new markets including Ireland, Sweden and the Netherlands, and its preparing to expand into new territories in the next 12 months, including in the U.S., where it recently received 510(k) clearance from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). The brand is also gearing up for its U.K. retail launch, where its eye-catching new Tampliner boxes will appear on shelves soon, the company says.
Callaly has also been in product development mode. A spate of new products are expected to launch later this year. Its new Super+ pads have a longer length, and will offer extra protection and security to people with a heavier flow, still in the same soft 100% organic cotton. A new Light absorbency of tampons and Tampliners will cater to people with a lighter flow who find Regular too absorbent. These Light products will allow the brand to update its Teen Period Kit with even more relevant and tailored products, the company says. And finally, Callaly is introducing applicator tampons to meet the needs of those who prefer to use a separate applicator. These are made from recyclable cardboard, fitting with its sustainable ethos.
Callaly’s product development team is also working on a redesign of the mini-liner part of its Tampliner, aiming to make it even easier for a wide range of body shapes and sizes to use. The Tampliner is biodegradable to ASTM D5511 test method (landfill condition) but it’s also collaborating with academic institutions like Imperial College and industry partners like Aquapak to further enhance its biodegradability credentials in more conditions.
Meanwhile, Planera, a new U.K.-based sanitary pad brand, is taking the disposal of pads to a whole new level. Planera sanitary pads are flushable—a feat that took the company two and a half years to accomplish. The pads were officially certified flushable by the Water Research Centre in the U.K. (Water Industry Specification 4-02-06) in July 2020. This is the first non-wipe that’s certified as flushable, according to Planera’s CEO and co-founder Dr. Olivia Ahn.
Ahn and her co-founder, COO Aaron Koshy, decided to start Planera three years ago after considering that disposable feminine care products weren’t really being designed for disposal. “Conventional plastic pads are 90% plastic, and some organic pads still contain polyethylene as well even though there’s a significant organic nonwovens component to them,” Ahn explains. “The plastic in it means they’re designed to be lightweight, cheap and durable, but they’re not meant for disposal.”
The current disposal routes in the U.K. are incineration and landfill, and 30% are being flushed away, she adds. “I even felt that if I created a biodegradable pad there would be no route for that pad to degrade naturally or within a certain acceptable timeframe because it’s currently estimated at 500 years. That’s why we decided to create a flushable pad because we wanted to create something that would be used for the eight to 12 hours maximum it would need to be used, but would then be guaranteed to disappear away.”
Planera pads are mainly made of cellulose and degrade into starch and sugar. Ahn says they chose cellulose for two main reasons: because it’s biodegradable and it’s very widely sourced. “With cellulose, we can be minimal with our sourcing impact. If we chose something specific like organic cotton or bamboo, then we know that organic cotton has a much more impact on sustainability because of the water use and land usage, and with bamboo the impact on the local ecosystems, as well as the fact that it’s not locally grown, you’d have that impact from flying it all the way in.”
Creating the pad that was made to be flushable and disintegrate didn’t take that long, Ahn says. The hard part was making a pad that was absorbent and stable, which is what they offer today. To accomplish this, Planera developed a combination barrier. The topsheet is made with biodegradable plant fibers; it’s naturally absorptive so blood rapidly wicks into the pad’s core. The wood pulp core rapidly removes the blood from the topsheet and distributes it across the core. Biodegradable powder then locks the blood as a gel, finally blocking it in place before it even reaches the barrier. Finally, Planera’s UpFlow Barrier is made up of multiple layers each playing an important role to protect from any leakages and be safe to flush. The top of the barrier is impervious to blood and the bottom absorbs any sweat during use, reducing humidity.
“It’s essentially a directional way we do the absorption and to make sure that the product is locked during use,” she says. “But to also ensure quick disintegration, we’ve taken out the construction adhesive. Also, with the sustainability, we’ve reduced the consumables that go into making this product, as well as using friction to produce our products, which allows it to be flushable.”
The company officially launched in November 2020 as a free trial so that it could test this new type of product on the market. “We wanted to test the appetite and also test the endurance and performance of the product as well,” Ahn says.
Thus far, Planera has had a positive response. They’ve sent over 6500 products to be tested, and up until now not a single product has failed in performance, Ahn claims. Currently, the brand is iterating the product in different shapes and sizes as it gets community feedback. A big commercial launch is planned for early 2022.
Inco Goes Organic
While the incontinence products market has been considerably more focused on performance rather than on containing plant-based materials, a budding market for greener products is taking shape in the light incontinence category. Much of the innovation has been coming from feminine care brands that have branched out into the light bladder leakage category.
In 2019 Cora came out with light bladder leakage products made with organic cotton after seeing that brands weren’t addressing the issue of bladder leakage among women in their 30s and 40s. Cora’s liner for light bladder leaks features a first-of-its-kind fan shape and ultra-absorbent pad at the front of the liner to give women more coverage where leaks actually happen.
Meanwhile Organyc, a maker of organic cotton feminine hygiene products, launched a new organic cotton based light incontinence line last year. The new line of light incontinence pads and liners use only certified organic cotton on the topsheet and a cotton balanced absorbent core that has a mix of cotton and super absorbents to pull wetness away and maintain a dry feeling.
On top of its excellent absorbency, the new line is proven to resolve and protect against skin sensitivities, is dermatologically tested, free of wood pulp, fumes or perfumes and is GOTS Certified.
More recently, the femcare brand Nannocare launched NannoDry, a discreet incontinence protection pad for men and women. NannoDry pads are made with 100% organic cotton and contain no fragrances, dyes, chlorine bleach, or other toxins. NannoDry pads are available in Light, Regular, and Super protection to suit all needs. The thin absorbent core locks in wetness while the leak-proof back sheet protects against leaks.
Nannocare created NannoDry because it saw a lack of innovation and use of organic and environmentally sustainable options in the incontinence section, according to Xiaolin Li, chief development officer of Nannocare. “Our line is comprised of incontinence pads made with 100% certified organic cotton, biodegradable packaging, and an extremely absorbent core. We also implemented our Nannogenic technology in the second layer of the pads to help with the odor control and no fragrance. All of our incontinence pads are super breathable, wingless and unisex,” Li says.
Nannocare uses only biodegradable plastic packaging, a first for a national sanitary brand. The biodegradable plastic is used for the external packaging and the plastic wrap of each pad. “We’ve consulted with our supplier and the material is used by major retailers around the world in food contact applications,” Li says. “It turns ordinary plastic at the end of its useful life, in the presence of oxygen, into a material with a different molecular structure that results in it degrading.”
While natural fibers like cotton and wood pulp have been used in some absorbent hygiene products for decades, the Honest Company has been credited with putting ingredient transparency and an eco-friendly focus in the disposable baby diaper market on the map. Since Honest’s launch in 2012, there’s been a proliferation of newcomers entering not just the baby diaper market, but also feminine care and adult care. Most of these new brands are starting off through direct-to-consumer (DTC) channels via their own websites, using the internet and social media to gain attention from consumers.
Pricie Hanna, managing partner of Price Hanna Consultants, continues to see more direct-to-consumer brands competing for consumers who value sustainable materials in all three categories of absorbent hygiene products, although the focus on sustainable materials is more of a new phenomenon in the adult incontinence category. “Millennials and younger consumers are driving this trend, but the general public is increasingly concerned about sustainability,” she explains. “Besides direct-to-consumer brands, we also see the major manufacturers and their brands following this strategy in the baby and femcare categories. This is not yet observable from the major consumer brands in the adult incontinence category, but we expect that to change in the next year or two.”
Even with a wide range of new innovations in the natural hygiene space, the question about what truly makes a disposable hygiene product eco-friendly remains. In some instances, brands are touting materials that are derived from natural sources such as wood pulp, cotton, sugarcane and bamboo, while other companies are describing what their diapers are made without: chlorine, alcohol, dyes and fragrances. And in some cases, companies such as Ontex, P&G and Unicharm, are focusing on end-of-life solutions for their products through either recycling or composting.
Natalia Richer, diaper and absorbent hygiene products consultant for Diaper Testing International, says some of these companies are focusing on bio-based polymers, such as polyethylene derived from ethanol, while others are focusing on plant-based nonwovens such as blends of viscose or cotton. “Bio-based polymers, chemically speaking, will be no different from regular polymers, except their sourcing will come from a renewable source vs. non-renewable fossil fuels,” she explains, adding that most companies are using the term “plant-based” to convey their stance in this space. “Consumers often relate the term ‘plant-based’ with it being safer to use, have less ‘toxic’ substances, and better for the planet, regardless of whether their assertion is accurate or not.”
Cotton and bamboo are widely recognized by consumers as safe, natural materials, according to Colin Hanna, director of market research, Price Hanna Consultants. “Nonwovens made from bamboo viscose for topsheets and backsheets in baby diapers are increasingly common in the most sustainable niche products. In the feminine category, cotton is most common,” he says. “Due to media coverage of plastic pollution in the oceans, consumers are increasingly developing an anti-plastic bias that advantages plant-based alternatives.”
Best for Baby
On the baby care side, both large multinationals and smaller DTC startups are appealing to millennial parents’ desire for cleaner and safer diapers for their little ones. The increased demands for transparency and the heightened awareness of chemicals of concern have pushed baby diaper companies to eliminate unnecessary chemicals such as fragrances, while also replacing petroleum-derived components with plant-derived ingredients.
Procter & Gamble’s (P&G) entry into the natural category happened in 2018 with the launch of the Pampers Pure Collection which includes diapers and wipes made with premium cotton. Just last month the consumer products giant expanded this line with the launch of Pampers Pure Protection Hybrid Diapers, its first diapering system that is part reusable, part disposable.
The diaper system includes a disposable insert made with a plant-based liner, enriched with shea butter and other thoughtfully selected materials. It features Pampers’ trusted absorbent core and high leg cuffs to help prevent leaks. A “one size fits most” super soft reusable cloth covers made with premium fabrics, adjustable leg elastics and waist snaps that will last through multiple changes. The machine washable covers are easy to clean with simple laundering instructions.
In addition to this new launch, Pampers says its business overall continues to innovate toward more sustainable diapering solutions to use 30% less diapering materials per baby over their diapering time. Over the past 25 years, Pampers has reduced its disposable diaper weight by 50% and its packaging by 70%, generating less use of resources in its products.
Kimberly-Clark put its own twist on the natural baby diaper in 2019 with the launch of Huggies Special Delivery diapers, which feature a baby-side liner and waistband made with fibers derived from plant-based materials such as sugarcane. Similarly, in August, Huggies launched a plant-based training pant called Pull-Ups New Leaf, which are also made with ingredients like sugarcane and fluff pulp.
This month, Kudos, a new baby diaper brand that’s been in the works for two and a half years, is launching with the aim to be the most skin-friendly, high-performance plant-based diaper on the market. Amrita Saigal, an MIT grad, began developing the brand Kudos in early 2019.
Saigal started her career at Procter & Gamble, working on the engineering and manufacturing side for brands such as Always pads and Gillette razors. She left P&G to start her first company in India—Saathi Pads—which makes biodegradable sanitary pads out of waste banana tree fiber. After leaving Saathi and returning to the U.S., friends of hers started asking if she could bring the same innovation she applied to pads in India to diapers in the U.S.
“I kept asking my friends, ‘What is the issue that you’re having with diapers?’ and I kept getting the answer, ‘I feel like I’m constantly having to choose between performance or natural, I can’t have them both,’” Saigal recalls. “They felt like they had to make a compromise between what would get them the most sleep and what was good for the environment.”
While working on Kudos, Saigal and her team considered what eco-friendly diaper brands had already developed. “These brands have their core made out of sustainably harvested wood pulp, but if you’re looking at the topsheet and backsheet, those are still nonwoven spunbond polypropylene materials,” she says. “I think existing brands have taken a step in the right direction, removing a lot of the added chemicals and fragrances that you find in traditional disposables, and using sustainably harvested wood pulp in the core. But then you’re still having your baby sitting in plastic all day—everything is still plastic minus the core.”
In contrast, Kudos is replacing more conventional petroleum-derived components of the diaper with plant-derived materials, especially when it comes to what’s touching baby’s skin.
“Our consumer research showed that whether it’s food, clothing, or baby products like diapers, today’s parents are looking for safe and sustainable plant-based options. Working with plant-based materials in a baby diaper presented some challenges when designing Kudos. It was critical that we understood the options available to us with nonwoven fibers and processes so we could design a diaper that would be effective, environmentally friendly and manufacturable,” says Saigal.
The diapers feature a 100% cotton topsheet, for example, which makes Kudos the first disposable diaper to have earned the cotton natural seal from Cotton Inc., which recently published the results of a clinical study showing cotton is considered hypoallergenic and safe for sensitive skin. This further solidified Kudos’ choice to use cotton as the main material touching baby’s skin.
To effectively remove moisture from the cotton topsheet, Kudos also developed a unique composite acquisition distribution layer (ADL) made from plant-based materials, as well as a green PE backsheet.
“We’re being very transparent about our materials,” Saigal says. “Are we 100% biodegradable? No diaper is. Ultimately, however, we’re committed to getting as much plastic out of the diaper as possible, and as many plant-based, skin-loving materials in.”
Healthynest, another new diaper brand, has partnered with the Environmental Working Group (EWG) to launch the first diaper to meet the EWG’s rigorous criteria for health and ingredient disclosure. The launch coincides with the publication of EWG’s new comprehensive Guide to Safer Diapers, an analysis of the chemicals and materials used in baby diapers, to help parents and caregivers sort through the vast array of product options—and related advertising claims—available on the market.
Healthynest is led by founder Shazi Visram, a member of EWG’s board of directors, who’s dedicated her life’s work to building a strong foundation for children’s health.
She started this by launching Happy Family Organics on Mother’s Day 2006, which has since become a leading organic baby food company in the U.S. Then in 2012, her son Zane was diagnosed with Autism. “Ever since then, I’ve thrown myself into learning everything I can to help him and understand the condition now affecting 1/54 children,” she says. “My goal now is to share everything I’ve learned with new parents. It turns out that eating organic is just one of the things we can do to give our kids the healthiest start. We can do so much more to clean up baby’s environment—the air he breathes, the chemicals in products that touch his delicate, permeable skin, all of which have an effect on baby’s brain development.”
Launched in December, healthynest is the world’s first and only EWG Verified diaper. Healthynest’s Diapering Program subscription pairs all of the diapers and wipes needed for the month with brain-building activities matched to baby’s age and stage.
To have an EWG Verified diaper means that each and every material included in healthynest diapers is tested by third-party labs to meet standards developed by a team of toxicologists, chemists and epidemiologists at the EWG. The criteria set forth by the EWG requires controlled sourcing of raw materials, manufacturing processes to prevent contamination and third-party testing for harmful substances such as chlorine or elemental chlorine-free bleaching agents, parabens, phthalates, VOCs, phenols, optical brighteners used to whiten, pesticides, flame-retardant chemicals and polyfluorinated chemicals, or PFAS. This means the diapers are made without BPA, phthalates, parabens, fragrance (and more), then also third-party tested in labs globally to ensure they are not contaminated by harmful environmental toxins or contaminants. The diaper has been almost three years in the making and has been tested for over 900 chemical compounds.
Claire Lloyd, founding partner of healthynest, says they wanted to create a diaper that is safe, plant-based and sustainable, while still upholding the highest standards of performance. “After all, we are talking about poop, so if we were truly going to make an impact, we needed to develop a diaper that actually works,” she says. “We saw that the plant-based diapers on the market were simply not as effective as conventional diapers, and we wanted to solve this. That is why we chose sugarcane as our plant-based ingredient. It is natural, renewable and it performs.”
Healthynest has focused on the beginning of the diaper life cycle, where it believes it can make an impact. According to Lloyd, other plant-based diaper brands focus on the end of the diaper life cycle, marketing their product as biodegradable. “But one, PLA and bamboo-based materials don’t perform as well, so they are less likely to be repurchased, and two, there is a biodegradability myth around diapers: if they are to break down, they need to be separated from the rest of the diaper and brought to a specific industrial composting facility, which most people do not have access to. If a ‘biodegradable’ diaper ends up in a landfill, it unfortunately does not biodegrade,” she says.
Healthynest focuses on the beginning of the diaper life cycle through its materials. It replaces petroleum with renewable grown sugarcane wherever possible, meaning it uses less petroleum and crude oil to make its diapers. Healthynest’s super soft outer cover is enhanced with cotton, further reducing the amount of petroleum used. It also uses Totally Chlorine Free wood pulp, 100% sourced from FSC Certified (sustainably managed) forests, and carbon neutral production.
This month a new version of the diapers, which will be enhanced with organic cotton in the outer cover, will launch. “Organic cotton is safer for baby’s skin and better for the environment,” Lloyd says. “With 80% of the world’s pesticides going to grow cotton, organic cotton is pure. Using it also means having a positive environmental impact: 90% reduction in water waste and 45% less CO2 emissions, compared to conventionally grown cotton.”
Belgian hygiene product producer Ontex is taking another approach to sustainability. Within the last few months the company announced a dual set of initiatives to tackle diaper waste.
Through a partnership with Woosh, Ontex will begin a diaper recycling program that will begin in Mechelen, Belgium, and eventually spread to other Belgian cities and throughout Europe.
Woosh is launching a delivery and collection service for Ontex’s Little Big Change diapers for nurseries. It’s starting in Mechelen, Bruges, Ghent, then deploying its services to other Belgian cities, notably Brussels in the coming months. By 2024, Woosh aims to reach 1000 nurseries in Belgium alone, and expand its service to other European countries, according to Jeff Stubbe, co-founder of Woosh.
“In Belgium today, the separate collection of diaper waste remains limited, which hinders the progress of diaper recycling. Waste companies are not motivated to invest in the recycling because there is not enough separated diaper waste. Due to the lack of recycling facilities, there’s also little incentive to separate diaper waste,” Stubbe continues.
Meanwhile, in April, Ontex and circular economy company Les Alchimistes announced they are testing an industrial scale composting of diaper pads at Les Alchimistes’ site in Pantin near Paris, France.
“Our goal is to make the separate collection and composting of used, compostable diapers a reality,” says Maïwenn Mollet, director of the Fertile Diapers program at Les Alchimistes. “We are very happy that Ontex and their brand Little Big Change are joining our mission. Ontex has the engineering knowledge and resources to design diapers that can be compostable. Our goal is to create a new circular economy loop with Ontex and other like-minded companies and to compost 500 million diapers by 2030.”
Ontex and Les Alchimistes have set up a pilot project at Les Alchimistes’ industrial composting site with the aim of proving that composting Ontex diaper pads is possible and that waste and incineration can be reduced. The project requires cooperation between different partners: from suppliers of materials, diaper manufacturers like Ontex, to waste collection and to composting partners using suitable technology.
Working with partner company gDiapers, which has 17 years of expertise in hybrid compostable diapers, the Ontex Little Big Change brand has developed a new diaper system. The system consists of a reusable outer diaper made of cotton and a disposable diaper pad which is designed to be industrially compostable.
The projects with Woosh and Les Alchimistes fit with Ontex’s ambitions and sustainability strategy for 2030 to reduce diaper waste through different technologies.
“As a major player in essential personal hygiene, we recognize the need to find alternatives to landfill and incineration for our used products. We are examining ways to reduce CO2-emissions all through their different life cycle phases. As we ourselves move towards a circular economy business model, it is a natural and logical step to work together with other companies to make our diapers more recyclable or compostable,” says Annick De Poorter, EVP for Innovation, Sustainability and Quality, Ontex.
Ontex believes its customers and consumers will be eager to participate in these programs. “Generation Z, or the population that has been born at the turn of the century, is already entering the workforce and will be the largest consumer segment by 2025. Many of these people are now too young to vote, but are already social influencers and it is clear that they are interested in products that are safe for them, but also safe for the planet,” De Poorter says.
Ontex is also seeing a significant increase in demand from retailers to include plant-based products in diapers. “A lot of smaller online brands with natural features are popping up, so their success is linked with the fact that people are looking at safe products,” she concludes.
The Future of Femcare
In recent years the rate of introduction of new menstrual care brands and products continues to redefine the category. While Always, Tampax, o.b. and private labels have been mainstays for decades, newer brands focusing on natural materials, mainly organic cotton, are changing the way feminine hygiene aisles look.
For its part, Callaly has put a novel spin on sanitary protection. The U.K.-based company’s Tampliner, made with organic cotton, is a patented feminine hygiene device that combines a tampon and a built-in mini-liner between a labia, which gives the wearer extra protection from leaks without the bulk and bunching of a bigger liner. The mini-liner is held in place by a patented virtual applicator for clean insertion and removal.
Callaly’s Tampliner recently expanded into new markets including Ireland, Sweden and the Netherlands, and its preparing to expand into new territories in the next 12 months, including in the U.S., where it recently received 510(k) clearance from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). The brand is also gearing up for its U.K. retail launch, where its eye-catching new Tampliner boxes will appear on shelves soon, the company says.
Callaly has also been in product development mode. A spate of new products are expected to launch later this year. Its new Super+ pads have a longer length, and will offer extra protection and security to people with a heavier flow, still in the same soft 100% organic cotton. A new Light absorbency of tampons and Tampliners will cater to people with a lighter flow who find Regular too absorbent. These Light products will allow the brand to update its Teen Period Kit with even more relevant and tailored products, the company says. And finally, Callaly is introducing applicator tampons to meet the needs of those who prefer to use a separate applicator. These are made from recyclable cardboard, fitting with its sustainable ethos.
Callaly’s product development team is also working on a redesign of the mini-liner part of its Tampliner, aiming to make it even easier for a wide range of body shapes and sizes to use. The Tampliner is biodegradable to ASTM D5511 test method (landfill condition) but it’s also collaborating with academic institutions like Imperial College and industry partners like Aquapak to further enhance its biodegradability credentials in more conditions.
Meanwhile, Planera, a new U.K.-based sanitary pad brand, is taking the disposal of pads to a whole new level. Planera sanitary pads are flushable—a feat that took the company two and a half years to accomplish. The pads were officially certified flushable by the Water Research Centre in the U.K. (Water Industry Specification 4-02-06) in July 2020. This is the first non-wipe that’s certified as flushable, according to Planera’s CEO and co-founder Dr. Olivia Ahn.
Ahn and her co-founder, COO Aaron Koshy, decided to start Planera three years ago after considering that disposable feminine care products weren’t really being designed for disposal. “Conventional plastic pads are 90% plastic, and some organic pads still contain polyethylene as well even though there’s a significant organic nonwovens component to them,” Ahn explains. “The plastic in it means they’re designed to be lightweight, cheap and durable, but they’re not meant for disposal.”
The current disposal routes in the U.K. are incineration and landfill, and 30% are being flushed away, she adds. “I even felt that if I created a biodegradable pad there would be no route for that pad to degrade naturally or within a certain acceptable timeframe because it’s currently estimated at 500 years. That’s why we decided to create a flushable pad because we wanted to create something that would be used for the eight to 12 hours maximum it would need to be used, but would then be guaranteed to disappear away.”
Planera pads are mainly made of cellulose and degrade into starch and sugar. Ahn says they chose cellulose for two main reasons: because it’s biodegradable and it’s very widely sourced. “With cellulose, we can be minimal with our sourcing impact. If we chose something specific like organic cotton or bamboo, then we know that organic cotton has a much more impact on sustainability because of the water use and land usage, and with bamboo the impact on the local ecosystems, as well as the fact that it’s not locally grown, you’d have that impact from flying it all the way in.”
Creating the pad that was made to be flushable and disintegrate didn’t take that long, Ahn says. The hard part was making a pad that was absorbent and stable, which is what they offer today. To accomplish this, Planera developed a combination barrier. The topsheet is made with biodegradable plant fibers; it’s naturally absorptive so blood rapidly wicks into the pad’s core. The wood pulp core rapidly removes the blood from the topsheet and distributes it across the core. Biodegradable powder then locks the blood as a gel, finally blocking it in place before it even reaches the barrier. Finally, Planera’s UpFlow Barrier is made up of multiple layers each playing an important role to protect from any leakages and be safe to flush. The top of the barrier is impervious to blood and the bottom absorbs any sweat during use, reducing humidity.
“It’s essentially a directional way we do the absorption and to make sure that the product is locked during use,” she says. “But to also ensure quick disintegration, we’ve taken out the construction adhesive. Also, with the sustainability, we’ve reduced the consumables that go into making this product, as well as using friction to produce our products, which allows it to be flushable.”
The company officially launched in November 2020 as a free trial so that it could test this new type of product on the market. “We wanted to test the appetite and also test the endurance and performance of the product as well,” Ahn says.
Thus far, Planera has had a positive response. They’ve sent over 6500 products to be tested, and up until now not a single product has failed in performance, Ahn claims. Currently, the brand is iterating the product in different shapes and sizes as it gets community feedback. A big commercial launch is planned for early 2022.
Inco Goes Organic
While the incontinence products market has been considerably more focused on performance rather than on containing plant-based materials, a budding market for greener products is taking shape in the light incontinence category. Much of the innovation has been coming from feminine care brands that have branched out into the light bladder leakage category.
In 2019 Cora came out with light bladder leakage products made with organic cotton after seeing that brands weren’t addressing the issue of bladder leakage among women in their 30s and 40s. Cora’s liner for light bladder leaks features a first-of-its-kind fan shape and ultra-absorbent pad at the front of the liner to give women more coverage where leaks actually happen.
Meanwhile Organyc, a maker of organic cotton feminine hygiene products, launched a new organic cotton based light incontinence line last year. The new line of light incontinence pads and liners use only certified organic cotton on the topsheet and a cotton balanced absorbent core that has a mix of cotton and super absorbents to pull wetness away and maintain a dry feeling.
On top of its excellent absorbency, the new line is proven to resolve and protect against skin sensitivities, is dermatologically tested, free of wood pulp, fumes or perfumes and is GOTS Certified.
More recently, the femcare brand Nannocare launched NannoDry, a discreet incontinence protection pad for men and women. NannoDry pads are made with 100% organic cotton and contain no fragrances, dyes, chlorine bleach, or other toxins. NannoDry pads are available in Light, Regular, and Super protection to suit all needs. The thin absorbent core locks in wetness while the leak-proof back sheet protects against leaks.
Nannocare created NannoDry because it saw a lack of innovation and use of organic and environmentally sustainable options in the incontinence section, according to Xiaolin Li, chief development officer of Nannocare. “Our line is comprised of incontinence pads made with 100% certified organic cotton, biodegradable packaging, and an extremely absorbent core. We also implemented our Nannogenic technology in the second layer of the pads to help with the odor control and no fragrance. All of our incontinence pads are super breathable, wingless and unisex,” Li says.
Nannocare uses only biodegradable plastic packaging, a first for a national sanitary brand. The biodegradable plastic is used for the external packaging and the plastic wrap of each pad. “We’ve consulted with our supplier and the material is used by major retailers around the world in food contact applications,” Li says. “It turns ordinary plastic at the end of its useful life, in the presence of oxygen, into a material with a different molecular structure that results in it degrading.”
