PadCare Labs | Sanitary Waste Recycling Services India

Waste Recovery

Sustainable Development Goals

SDG 11 – Sustainable Cities and Communities, SDG 12 – Responsible Consumption and Production, SDG 13 – Climate Action, SDG 3 – Good Health and Well Being

Company Overview

PadCare Labs Pvt. Ltd. is a Pune-based company that collects, processes and recycles used sanitary pads. This waste stream is often landfilled, burned or handled by hand by waste pickers. The company was founded in 2018 by Ajinkya Dhariya, a mechanical engineer who began working on the problem during his college years. Its customers include workplaces, educational institutions, manufacturing sites, housing societies and community programmes funded through corporate social responsibility budgets.

The company separates the point of disposal from the point of processing. Used pads are collected where they are discarded and moved to material recovery centres. There, a patented chemo-mechanical process separates cellulose pulp from plastic. The recovered materials return to industrial and consumer uses, so the service works as a closed loop rather than a one-way disposal arrangement.

PadCare has moved from pilot demonstrations to commercial operations. Early support came from a university-linked incubator and government innovation grants. A seed round followed, and in February 2026 the company raised a pre-Series A round of USD 3 million, mixing equity and debt. The company has stated plans to raise annual recycling capacity to 2,000 metric tonnes by March 2027.

Its stated mission is to make modern sanitation choices safer and recyclable for women worldwide. The company also publishes an annual sustainability report, with the 2025-26 edition currently available.

Why These SDGs Matter

Good Health and Well-being applies because used sanitary pads are frequently segregated by hand at dumpsites and municipal facilities. Closed collection bins and centralised processing reduce direct contact with biological waste for sanitation workers.

Sustainable Cities and Communities is relevant because sanitary waste is a recurring burden on municipal waste systems. PadCare gives buildings and housing societies a dedicated collection route that connects to local recovery centres, which takes pressure off general solid waste handling.

Responsible Consumption and Production fits the company's core activity. Used pads are converted into cellulose pulp and plastic granules that are reused in products such as stationery, paper and collection bins. The recycling work directly supports the target on reducing waste through recovery and reuse.

Climate Action is supported because the processing route replaces incineration, which is a common disposal method for sanitary waste. The company also provides a dashboard that lets clients track the carbon footprint and environmental impact of their participation, which supports corporate emissions reporting.

Products & Services
  • PadCare Bin for sanitary waste collection in washrooms
  • Scheduled pickup and transport of used sanitary waste
  • Material recovery centre processing into pulp and plastic
  • Sanitary pad vending machines for workplaces and campuses
  • Digital dashboard tracking carbon footprint and environmental impact
  • CSR-funded community sanitary waste management projects
  • Rebirth recycled stationery and paper products
  • PadCare Orbit app for housing societies (planned launch)
Business Challenges Solved
  • Unsafe manual handling of sanitary waste by cleaning staff and waste pickers
  • Incineration or landfilling of sanitary waste from offices and institutions
  • Odour and hygiene issues from sanitary waste stored in washrooms
  • Lack of measurable data for ESG reporting on menstrual waste
  • Facility teams lacking a compliant disposal route for sanitary waste
  • Housing societies needing a separate stream for sanitary waste
  • Low-value plastic and absorbent pulp going unrecovered from used pads
Approach & Methodology

PadCare follows a segregate-at-source, process-centrally model. Early pilots explored processing machines inside washrooms, and the company moved to a collection service with central recovery facilities. Used pads are dropped into purpose-designed bins that limit odour and bacterial growth for up to 30 days, according to UNICEF. A third-party pickup team then takes the waste to the nearest material recovery centre.

At the recovery centre, the waste goes through a five-step process: disinfection, deodorisation, decolourisation, deactivation and drying. The deactivation step neutralises the super-absorbent material in the pad. The process then separates the cellulose pulp from the plastic components. UNICEF reports that the perforation-based system recovers 99.5 per cent of materials, with more than 95 per cent separation between pulp and plastic.

The outputs go back into use. Plastic is converted into granules that can be used to make new collection bins and packaging. Pulp is sold for applications such as fertiliser manufacturing and is also used for stationery and paper. Liquid effluent from the process has been reported as tested by an accredited laboratory against pollution control limits.

Customers pay recurring service fees, which fund collection logistics and facility operations. A digital dashboard gives clients usage and impact data for their sites.

Market Position

PadCare operates in sanitary and menstrual waste management, a niche within India's wider solid waste and recycling sector. Its primary customers are corporate offices, manufacturing sites, educational institutions and housing societies, along with CSR-funded community programmes.

The company describes itself as the first in India to offer sanitary pad recycling, and its processing relies on a patented chemo-mechanical route. It reports serving more than 685 enterprise, manufacturing and residential clients across over 2,000 sites. It also reports being profitable at the net level for the last two years, with an EBITDA margin of 26 per cent. These are company-reported figures.

The business model combines hardware, scheduled collection, central processing and sale of recovered materials, which gives it revenue from both service fees and by-product markets.

Procurement Considerations
  • Confirm service availability and pickup frequency in your city, as coverage spans 24 cities
  • Check bin placement, capacity and collection schedule against washroom footfall
  • Request documentation on effluent testing and local pollution control compliance for the recovery centre serving your site
  • Ask how carbon and waste data from the dashboard can feed your ESG reporting
  • Review contract terms, since pricing is based on recurring service fees
  • Verify which recovery facility processes your waste and where recovered pulp and plastic are used
  • Confirm what housekeeping staff training and bin servicing the service includes
Funding, Recognition & Ecosystem
  • Pre-seed investment from Venture Center under the BIRAC LEAP Fund
  • Seed round of Rs 5 crore led by Social Alpha, with Lavni Ventures, 3i Partners, Rainmatter and Spectrum Impact
  • Pre-Series A round of USD 3 million in February 2026, led by Rainmatter, with 3one4 Capital, Brigade REAP, PKRBCV Shroff Trust, Lavni Ventures and 3i Partners
  • Debt support from EXIM Bank and ICICI Bank as part of the 2026 round
  • Investment from four investors on Shark Tank India Season 2
  • Founder selected for UNICEF Innovation30 in 2023, with the solution supported through the World Economic Forum UpLink accelerator
  • Induction into Marico Innovation Foundation’s Scale-Up program in 2025
  • Awards listed by the company include FICCI-ISC Award 2020, Toilet Board Coalition 2019 and the NASSCOM Innovative Startup Award 2019
Natnavi Analysis

PadCare Labs addresses a waste stream that sits between hygiene, municipal waste and plastic recycling, and few organised operators serve it. Sanitary pads combine absorbent pulp, plastic and biological residue, which makes them hard to recycle by conventional routes. A service that collects them separately and recovers the materials is relevant to organisations that want a documented disposal route for their washroom waste.

The company's strengths are its end-to-end operating model, from bins to recovery to resale of materials. It also has a funding base that includes impact and venture investors, and it reports profitable operations. The digital dashboard gives clients impact data they can use in ESG disclosures, which is useful for sustainability teams that need site-level figures.

Several points warrant attention from buyers. Coverage is concentrated in 24 Indian cities, so service availability outside them should be confirmed. The company itself describes its current volumes as a small share of national sanitary waste, and the 2,000 tonne capacity target is a plan for March 2027, not current capacity. The planned consumer-facing app for housing societies would add a second customer type to a business that is mainly sold to organisations.

Overall, PadCare is a credible option for institutions seeking a managed, recycling-based alternative to incineration of sanitary waste.

Sources & References
Website
Founded: 2018
Company Stage: Startup
Headquarters
Pune, Maharashtra, India
Geographic Presence
PadCare operates across 24 Indian cities, with headquarters in Pune and recovery centres supporting regional collection. Expansion is planned in Bengaluru and Delhi NCR, and the company has stated an intention to extend into the APAC region. Services reach enterprises, manufacturing sites, schools and housing societies, with collection routed to the nearest recovery centre.
Solution Type
Service Provider, Technology Provider
Sustainability Outcomes
Carbon Reduction, Circular Economy, Resource Efficiency, Waste Reduction
Industries Served
Commercial Buildings, Construction & Real Estate, Government & Public Sector, Hospitality & Tourism, Manufacturing
Last Reviewed: October 8, 2026

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