Saving the Planet

Saving the planet … one nappy at a time

North Canterbury’s Karen Upston has turned her concern at the environmental impact of used nappies into an international enterprise. And what’s more she’s done it all astonishingly quickly – from trials to global buyout in just two years!

It began in a paddock on the rural fringes of Rangiora in early February 2007. Neighbours must have wondered what on earth the Upston family was up to when a truck arrived to deliver a strange-looking cylindrical piece of machinery to their property.

Following a successful trial of this cylinder – the world’s first nappy composter – Karen and Karl Upston invested everything they had to turn this innovative project into a thriving commercial business.

The idea had come from Karen. This mother of two had become consumed by guilt at the number of disposable nappies she was using. The question she kept asking was, ‘Surely there had to be a better solution than landfill for all the used ones?’

Karen already had a home-based business selling cloth and disposable nappies and so adding a nappy composting facility seemed like a logical – and responsible- adjunct to it.

“I was sick of spending time at mothers’ groups and hearing people debate what could be done about disposable nappies without actually doing anything. I decided I wanted to do a trial to see if nappies could be composted – I really just wanted to prove a point that something like this could work.”

So she approached Christchurch-based business HotRot Organic Solutions, which had developed HotRot Composting technology; they agreed to loan Karen their prototype unit and provide relevant specialized advice for the trial.

Following the trial, there was another 18 months to two years of development before Envirocomp first opened for business in August 2009.

 “It was so hard to start with because Karl was working full-time and I was home with two young children. We’d be out in the paddock at night with the baby monitor, shredding nappies in the dark! People would just dump burst bags of nappies on the driveway and leave us to clean up the mess.

“We put our house and everything we earned on backing the commercialization of the business. We could have lost it all, but fortunately that didn’t happen.”

In fact, this award-winning business has been incredibly successful. Kimberly-Clark – manufacturers of Huggies nappies – jumped on board as a sponsor almost from the outset. Two years on and the North Canterbury plant is operating close to its current processing capacity of two-and-a-half tonnes of waste per day – equivalent to 15,000 nappies. The infrastructure is in place to expand this to 10 tonnes a day. Envirocomp is currently collecting waste material, including sanitary and incontinence products, from 800 residential customers and 70 businesses. Karen says rest home waste is fast catching up on nappies as a major waste stream and is set to increase five times in the next five years.

A new plant is planned to open in Wellington in early 2012 and discussions are underway for another in Auckland.

The biggest development of all is that Envirocomp was acquired, in February, by a fifth generation, family owned global conglomerate, OCS (One Complete Solution), one of whose companies is Canon Hygiene. Karen is employed as general manager.

“The exciting thing about this is that we are now able to achieve our goal to find a solution for this waste stream globally. There’s no way we could have done that as a small business based out of Rangiora without the opportunity these guys have given us.”

So, next on the agenda is Australia and the United Kingdom for this one-stop nappy composting whirlwind! The next two years are tipped to be a period of huge growth.

Karen grew up in Belfast and spent 18 years working in the animal health industry before starting a family.

The couple’s two children Regi and Jayden, who helped inspire the idea, are now aged respectively six and seven years. Karen and Karl always make sure one of them, at least, is available to drop their children to school and pick them up every day. Juggling the various commitments of the business with family responsibilities can be tricky, but they are determined to make it work.

“They have always been a part of the business; they call it ‘the Upston secret’ – we’re the family that knows how to process nappies!”

Envirocomp was named North Canterbury’s 2010 Supreme Exceptional Business of the Year, as well as its exceptional emerging business. It also took out the region’s exceptional sustainability award.

Meanwhile, trials are due to get underway in spring of the high quality, absorbent compost material produced from the waste.