Disposable diapers are a large environmental offender. Roughly 300,000 of them are despatched to landfills or incinerated each minute, in line with the World Economic Forum, they usually take lots of of years to decompose. It is a $60 billion enterprise.
One different strategy has been compostable diapers, which will be made out of wooden pulp or bamboo. However composting companies aren’t universally out there and a number of the merchandise are much less absorbent than regular nappies, critics say.
A rising variety of mother and father are additionally turning to fabric diapers, however they solely make up about 20% of the U.S. market.
ZymoChem is attacking the diaper drawback from a special angle. Harshal Chokhawala, CEO of ZymoChem, mentioned that 60% to 80% of a typical diaper consists of fossil-based plastics. And half of that’s an ingredient referred to as tremendous absorbent polymer, or SAP.
“What we’ve got created is a low carbon footprint bio-based and biodegradable model of this tremendous absorbent polymer,” Chokhawala mentioned.
ZymoChem, with operations in San Leandro, California, and Burlington, Vermont, invented this new kind of absorbent by utilizing a fermentation course of to transform a renewable useful resource — sugar — from corn into biodegradable supplies. It is much like making beer.
“We’re at a degree now the place we’re very near being at price parity with fossil primarily based manufacturing of tremendous absorbents,” mentioned Chokhawala.
The corporate’s drop-in absorbents will be added into different diapers, which makes it completely different from environmentally aware firms like Charlie Banana, Kudos and Hiro, which promote their very own model of diapers.
ZymoChem would not but have a diaper product in the marketplace. However Lindy Fishburne, managing companion at Breakout Ventures and an investor within the firm, says it is a scalable mannequin.
“Having the ability to construct and develop with biology permits us to unlock a round financial system and a provide chain that’s now not petro-derived, which opens up the alternatives of the place you possibly can manufacture and the way you safe provide chains,” Fishburne mentioned.
Different buyers embody Toyota Ventures, GS Futures, KDT Ventures, Cavallo Ventures and Lululemon. The corporate has raised a complete of $35 million.
The Lululemon partnership exhibits that it is not nearly diapers. ZymoChem’s bio-based supplies will also be utilized in different hygiene merchandise and in bio-based nylon. Lululemon recently said it should use it in a few of its leggings, which have been historically made with petroleum.
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