Entusia (2023)

Model for reusable textiles to minimise material use in incontinence care

About 80% of residents in a residential care home struggle with urine leakage. Another more than half of them suffer from heavy urine loss. This means that care facilities use and dispose of hundreds of thousands of incontinence products every year. Entusia researches how these products can be made circular.

Every day, hundreds of thousands of single-use underpads and incontinence pants and pull-ups disappear into landfills. In residential care centres, this incontinence material makes up about 60 per cent of medical waste. Often, the pants and pull-ups are used in combination with the underpads, which doubles the amount of waste. Therefore, Entusia offers reusable textile products in the healthcare sector as a sustainable alternative.

Currently, Entusia's range already includes stylish reusable underwear for people with light and moderate urine loss, as well as reusable bibs and underpads for bed and seat. As a result, the company has already managed to keep more than 925 tonnes of incontinence material off landfills.

Thanks to this success story, Entusia plans to further innovate and focus on circular business models as-a-service for seat pads and heavy urine loss products. Entusia opts for removable pads so that the underwear itself can still be used for several months when the pad loses its antibacterial properties. By focusing on reuse and a longer lifespan, the healthcare sector can further reduce material consumption and CO2 emissions. Together with its partners, Entusia will look at how pads can be made fully circular in the future.