Low cost biodegradable materials for Peepoo

Purpose and goal

The aim was to increase the availability of Peepoos for a larger number of users and to reach an economical sustainable product for the ´Bottom of the Pyramid´ market. To achieve this the price of the Peepoo needs to decrease. The objective was to develop a low cost material with the same material qualities as our current material. Allowing us to lower the price of the Peepoo and result in a larger spread of the product. Unfortunately we have not been able to achieve this but with the re-organisation from central to local production we believe that we have a greater chance to reach our goal.

Results and expected effects

The expected result of this project was to be able to lower the price of the Peepoo by reducing the production cost, and thus increase the impact of the product. Unfortunately we have not been able to achieve this, but we´re hoping that transferring our operations to Kenya will give us a lower production cost and increased impact. We´re planning to continue the material development for the local production together with Add-X where the impact of a low cost material will be even greater as the material cost makes up a larger proportion of the production price.

Approach and implementation

The project has been divided into three phases: odour barrier, plastic compound and film production, test in Peepoople production, and evaluation of material. These phases have to some extent run parallel to each other, but the main workload has been towards the end of the project and many steps were dependent on each other, especially on the ready produced product. This step was delayed because of technical production issues, as well as issues when producing the plastic film. This caused a delay of the entire project, and several steps has not been completed due to lack of time.