Seeking Sustainable Adhesive/ Bonding Technologies for Feminine Absorbing Hygiene Products

Description of Need

Find ideally Plastic Free Adhesive/Bonding technologies for AHP to attach plastic-free substrates.

Here are the technologies that we would consider plastic-free:

• Only polymers that are natural, where polymerization happens in nature, without chemical modifications or being chemically processed, provided the end polymer is the same chemically as the starting polymer and not derived from petroleum.

Here are the technologies we are not interested in as we would consider them plastic:

• Bio plastics from ethanol and biomass regardless of whether they degrade if polymerization occurs in an industrial facility (cracker).
• Bio plastics that are produced via industrial fermentation processes like PHA.
• Natural polymers that are modified (like cellulose acetate).
• Coatings that contain polymers like the polyacrylate and PDMS silicone.

What we are looking for:

• We are open to staggered approaches:
  • Step 1: Adhesive/Bonding technologiesto bond plastic-free AHP substrates, although the technology itself may not be plastic-free (like Hotmelt Adhesives today).
  • Step 2: Adhesive/Bonding technologies to bond plastic-free AHP substrates AND are plastic-free themselves
• On top of step 1 and 2, we are also interested in (potentially additional) plastic-free technology solutions to keep the feminine AHP anchored and in place while in use and being worn (external attachment of the product to underwear).
• We are interested in solutions at Technology Readiness Level TRL 4+, ideally these are start-up and companies looking for a partner to scale-up and commercialize the technology (roughly in 2-3 years).
• We are open to all geographies. We expect the major impact in Europe.
• With regards to equipment requirements, the solutions should not pose a hazard for humans operating the machinery in production or wearing the resulting Absorbent Hygiene Products. Integration in existing Hotmelt systems would be a plus for Step 1 but it is not a must.

What we are not looking for

We are not looking for multi-year research agreements or proving funding for early-stage developments.