Evaluating methods for safe composting of biodegradable sanitary pads in different environments
After evaluating the biodegradation of our products and ingredients at the lab-scale through standardized tests in our Biodegradation, Compostability and Eco-toxicity (BCE) department, we evaluate how our products would behave in real-world, end-of-life situations. This is where our Biotech department comes in - we evaluate how our products would behave in home composting, hot composting, and industrial composting environments, while we evaluate how they behave if they end up in landfills or incinerators at our Environment department.
Our mission, as always, is striving toward finding circular solutions by pushing the industry one step closer to making large-scale composting of absorbent hygiene products a reality. As a first step to replacing conventional, non-biodegradable sanitary pads made with up to 90% plastic, we redesigned our product with biodegradable and compostable ingredients to make it as sustainable as possible. Our Biotech department is currently researching these areas:
1. Evaluating different microbes and enzymes suitable for effectively composting our ingredients
2. Evaluating methods for the safe composting of biodegradable products in different environments
We design our products and ingredients by keeping both their functionality as well as their end-of-life scenarios in mind. Besides developing compostable ingredients, we also study which specific microbes can effectively break down our different ingredients, so that we can optimize the composting process after disposal.
Under optimal conditions, the composting process goes through three phases: the mesophilic (moderate temperature phase), the thermophilic (high-temperature phase) and maturation (cooling phase). During the different composting phases, different microorganisms become active and do their part to carry out the decomposition of various materials.
We design our products and ingredients by keeping both their functionality as well as their end-of-life scenarios in mind. Besides developing compostable ingredients, we also study which specific microbes can effectively break down our different ingredients, so that we can optimize the composting process after disposal.
Under optimal conditions, the composting process goes through three phases: the mesophilic (moderate temperature phase), the thermophilic (high-temperature phase) and maturation (cooling phase). During the different composting phases, different microorganisms become active and do their part to carry out the decomposition of various materials.
In one gram of compost, there are billions of microorganisms (80-90% of which are bacteria) - these bacteria use a broad range of enzymes to decompose several organic materials, which generates heat in the compost and aids the breakdown of complex carbohydrates like cellulose and hemicellulose. We are conducting research on identifying the right mixture of bacteria that can break down our materials at different composting stages so that we can help our customers compost products effectively and efficiently.
The best thing about composting is that you can never go wrong with it as it’s a natural process - it also gives you a great canvas to experiment with; you can enhance the quality of the compost and reduce the time decomposing takes by optimizing some factors such as moisture content, temperature, microbes, carbon-to-nitrogen ratio, frequency of turning, etc. These factors play an important role when we try to compost items such as meat, bones, cooked food waste, or items containing bodily fluids such as used sanitary pads as they may contain pathogens (disease-causing organisms).
The best thing about composting is that you can never go wrong with it as it’s a natural process - it also gives you a great canvas to experiment with; you can enhance the quality of the compost and reduce the time decomposing takes by optimizing some factors such as moisture content, temperature, microbes, carbon-to-nitrogen ratio, frequency of turning, etc. These factors play an important role when we try to compost items such as meat, bones, cooked food waste, or items containing bodily fluids such as used sanitary pads as they may contain pathogens (disease-causing organisms).
During the thermophilic stage, the heat generated in properly-managed compost piles eliminates most human or plant pathogens. At our Biotech lab, we compost our products in different environments such as regular home composting bins, hot composting environments, and industrial composting settings to evaluate all the safe ways our customers can compost our products. Compared to a regular home composting bin, hot composting can be faster and more effective at safely killing off any lingering pathogens. With that being said, you can also compost our products using your traditional home composting bins; however, we would recommend giving your compost around 15-20 months to settle before using it for restoring any depleted soils.