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Sustainable Diaper Startup Esembly Wants Millennial Parents To Ditch Disposable Diapers For Good

This article is more than 3 years old.

Before taking on the disposable diaper industry—the third-largest producer of household waste in the U.S.—Liz Turrigiano lived and breathed a life of visual arts. While pregnant with her daughter in 2009, the former photographer and art buyer worked as an art producer for global ad agency Wieden + Kennedy.

A decade later, her eye for art and illustrations would help her design Esembly, a line of reusable and organic cloth diapers so stylish it could appeal to eco-conscious and fashion-savvy parents alike. But Esembly’s real mission is focused on demystifying the preconceptions surrounding cloth diapering. “You don’t have to be a stay-at-home parent to use cloth diapers,” says Turrigiano.

Before her daughter’s arrival, Turrigiano decided to skip disposable diapers and commit to cloth. “I was uncomfortable with the amount of waste that disposable diapers produced,” she says. She learned that reusables are not only better for the environment, but are better equipped to handle leaks and major messes.

Then, when her daughter was just a few months old, Turrigiano embarked on her first subway trip from Brooklyn to Manhattan with a newborn in tow. The new mom thought it would be easier to use a disposable diaper for the big trip. “The subway ride was a great success, the baby slept the whole time in her wrap snuggled against me,” she says. “But then, as I was emerging from underground, I felt something wet on my shirt. I peeled back the wrap to find that her diaper had exploded from her legs,” Turrigiano recalls.

Both mother and child were completely soiled. She ran into a fitting room at the Gap. “I remember both my daughter and I crying while trying to change her, buy myself a new top, and wipe the wrap clean,” Turrigiano says.

While her trek to the city was a failure, she set out on a new journey to ditch disposables for good and make cloth diapers more accessible, portable and easier for new moms.

“Disposable diapers are notorious for leaks and blowouts and as a society we’ve just accepted that as par for the course of having a baby,” she says. The accompanying costs and wastefulness are also par for the course. The average parent spends about $72 a month on disposable diapers, or about $900 a year. A baby is expected to use 6,500 diapers from birth to potty-training years.

Turrigiano teamed up with Sarah Edwards, a coworker at Wieden + Kennedy, and friend Marta Baumann to disrupt diapers. They launched Diaperkind in 2009, a service that delivers and launders cloth diapers for $36 to $46 a week. They also operate a community “diaper house” where they host cloth-diapering classes and gather parents.

Diaperkind currently serves about 400 families and continues to grow regionally. “New York City is a unique space where people are eco-minded but don’t have direct access to a washer and dryer,” says Turrigiano. “We are washing 15,000-18,000 diapers per week. We are proud to keep those diapers out of city landfills.” Americans throw away nearly 30 billion diapers a year, according to GreenAmerica.org. Meanwhile the EPA estimates that 4.15 million tons of diapers went to the landfills in 2017.

Diaperkind’s growth and reach is limited by the geographic boundaries of its delivery zone. And while the founders explored the option of expanding or franchising the service, the model doesn’t make as much sense outside of NYC when people living elsewhere have easy access to their own washer/dryer. With estimated annual revenues at roughly $1 million, it also prevented the local startup from scaling.

“Our goal is to take the concept of Diaperkind and bring it global,” says Turrigiano. From details on best laundry practices to diaper design, the cofounders took all the information gleaned from running Diaperkind for the past decade to launch Esembly in September 2019. By eliminating the laundry service, Esembly’s cloth diapering kits and full product line is more affordable than Diaperkind, and includes reusable wipes, cleaning products, storage bags and skincare. Esembly can ship to anywhere, making cloth diapering possible for any parent who does laundry at home.

The average Esembly starter kit costs between $300 to $400 (financing options are available), saving families an average of $1,500 to $2,000 over the baby’s first 33-36 months. “After the initial purchase, the only recurring cost is running a washing machine twice a week,” says Turrigiano.

To launch Esembly, Turrigiano and her cofounders turned to crowdfunding in 2018. “We raised mostly from Diaperkind families who believe in cloth diapers and wanted to invest and own shares in the new company.” Earlier this year, they closed a pre-seed round led by Brooklyn Bridge Ventures. To date, they’ve raised about $1.2 million.

They then began to build the Esembly product collection by sourcing from various manufacturers around the world. Its organic cotton inner-linings are 100% GOTS-certified and made in Pakistan. The outer waterproof linings and storage bags—each adorned in adorable prints and beautiful colors—are from China, made with 100% post-recycled consumer bottles. Its skincare line is made in Wyoming while its detergent is from a factory in Massachusetts.

After fundraising and product development, the team now has to face its next obstacle. “Our biggest challenge is getting our message out there,” says Turrigiano. They’re comparing their mission to “Breast is Best,” the decades-long campaign launched after breastfeeding rates dropped in the 1980s. The movement promoted the numerous health benefits of breastfeeding while convincing mothers to rely less on formula. Similarly, Esembly is launching campaigns like “Live Less Disposably,” in hopes of enlightening and educating parents about the financial and eco-friendly benefits of going full cloth.

But the Breast Is Best campaign has faced backlash in recent years, as many mothers reported the movement to breastfeed exclusively affected them emotionally, physically and psychologically. One key to Esembly’s success is to ensure that its cloth diapering system is marketed less as a “must-do” and more as a “can-do” solution that’s convenient and equally beneficial for new mothers as it is for Mother Nature.

Cloth diapering is nowhere near the norm but Turrigiano and team aren’t discouraged. “Younger parents seem open to and excited for this option,” says Turrigiano. “They’re approaching parenthood with the same hesitations that I had ten years ago. They’re looking for methods that align with their personal ethics, from composting to reusable bags and bottles—and now diaper solutions.”

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