Offered blank cheque on Shark Tank, Pune startup raises Rs 5 crore in seed funding

“With the seed investment, we aim at scaling up in six cities and expand our services to residential buildings and communities. From two sanitary waste material recovery centres now, we aim to commission six more this year. We’re also working towards creating markets for reclaimed pulp and plastic,” says Dhariya. The startup also plans to penetrate into Tier II and III cities as well as enter Singapore as a global market.

Padcare’s stated aim is to “substantially reduce the number of deaths and illnesses caused by air, water and soil pollution that may be induced by otherwise buried or burnt pads. It also reduces the chances of infections in women who change pads in public toilets and waste-pickers who collect menstrual waste without a protective gear”.

The genesis of Padcare lays in Dhariya’s early exposure to social service. “I always knew that I would do something to benefit society by using technology,” he says. During his days as a mechanical engineering student, he would often witness ragpickers carrying used sanitary napkins in their hands, which acted as a trigger that “something was not happening right in this field.”

Started in 2018, PadCare claims to recycle 120 lakh pads a year. According to the government of India data, the country has 336 million menstruating women, of whom 64 per cent use sanitary pads, leading to one billion pads being generated every month. Dhariya and his team are trying to get more people to participate in their mission. “Un-recycled pads take 800 years to decompose. You can protect the planet from period plastic, help us recycle more pads with a simple solution — get our special sanitary pad dustbins in your office washrooms,” says the website of PadCare.