Hi Ross,

Thanks for your message. You asked me before about the end of life of Supertowel. We still have not done any research on this, so basically the environmental friendliness of Supertowel is resting purely on the durability of the towel. On that front I did do some research recently and have tested in the lab what happens to the antimicrobial treatment on the Supertowel if it is wash multiple times. The results show that even after 100 washes the Supertowel can still be caracterized as bacteriostatic. It still kills 90% of the bacteria on the towel.

I know this is not a full reply, but I hope it does give you some answers. I will definitely keep your end of life problematic in mind for future tests on Supertowel.

Best regards
Torben

Interesting paper on the trial studies of the Superetowel.
I would like to see what work has been done on the disposal side of this product at end of it's life and what the length of it's .life would look like
Regards Ross

Dear SuSanA network members,

The second scientific paper from the Supertowel research project has just been published on PLOS. The paper describes our research and findings from the field study that was conducted in collaboration with LSHTM in a refugee camp in Northern Ethiopia.

The paper is open access and can be viewed and downloaded following this link: journals.plos.org/plosone/article/commen...journal.pone.0216237

The title of the paper is: Could the Supertowel be used as an alternative hand cleaning product for emergencies? An acceptability and feasibility study in a refugee camp in Ethiopia

Best regards
Torben Holm Larsen

Dear fellow SuSanA members,

Finally the lab study concerning Supertowel has been published in the American Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene. The article is open access. This is the link to the article: www.ajtmh.org/content/journals/10.4269/ajtmh.18-0860

Comments and feedback are much welcomed either here or directly to me or Sian White from LSHTM. (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.).

Enjoy

Dear Elisabeth,

Thank you for your post.

Yes we are pretty thrilled that we are able to offer the product at a price that makes it viable for the use it is intended for.

We didn't get many responses to the survey so far unfortunately. Surveys are always problematic in my experience, people just generally does not take them. Our aim with the survey was to get in contact with organisations that were interested in going further with Supertowel.

Our HIF funded project is coming to an end now, so we are looking for other sources of funding to scale up and to continue the testing of the Supertowel. But even if any organisation would be interested in sticking their neck out and buy some Supertowels to distribute them in the field, that would help our continued work.

The scientific paper for the laboratory studies we did on Supertowel is in peer review now and LSHTM is working on finalising the paper on the field work from Ethiopia.

BR
Torben

Dear Torben,

You said:
"We will be able to sell it to the humanitarian sector at $0,5 - 0,75 FOB India, depending on quantities"

Great! Finally a new product that seems to be really cheap (given that it would last 1-2 years!).

How did you go with your survey? How many responses did you get so far (I noticed that you said the first 50 people can receive a sample of the supertowel - that's a great incentive!)

And how is your ongoing development and commercialisation work funded now?

Regards,
Elisabeth

Dear fellow SuSanA members,

As some of you might be aware we have finalized the field study on Supertowel. That concludes the research involved in the HIF development project. There are still a lot of research that we would like to perform on the Supertowel and we are looking at different options how to achieve this.

We are however now in the position to offer Supertowel commercially. This also means that Supertowel can now be applied in the field if there is interest among organizations involved in WASH.

I have prepared a small SurveyMonkey questionnaire, that I would be very grateful if as many of you would fill out. It would really be a great help in the further development of the Supertowel. Please follow this link to the survey: www.surveymonkey.com/r/Y7BKTLF

BR
Torben

OK - sounds great. We can definitely supply that kind of quantities. Let's continue the conversation on e-mail. No need to disturb all the rest of SuSanA's users My direct e-mail is This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

We are interested in testing the Supertowel in three Rwandan villages where we have ongoing relationships. Any amount up to 100 Supoertowels is what we have in mind to test the uptake and suitability of this hygiene intervention.

Sorry for my tardy reply regarding "Refreshing Towels". I have been trying to find the source of the info but to no avail. All I can add is that the towels claim to be flushable, which has given Authorities large problems as they do not break down in practice. Apparently they are costing London Sewers a lot of money to unclog their lines.
This has no bearing on the Supertowel unless they are disposed of in a similar fashion.

Me again - Elizabeth von Muench asked me to make a post about pricing and lifespan of the Supertowel. We will be able to sell it to the humanitarian sector at $0,5 - 0,75 FOB India, depending on quantities - ask for a specific quote. Lifespan is always a difficult question as it depends very much on how the towel is being taken care of. The antimicrobial treatment on the Supertowel is permanent, so the lifespan is depending only on the durability of the fabric. A good estimate would be 1 - 2 years. I hope that answers your question Elizabeth.
BR Torben

Hi there, We are able to manufacture the Supertowel now. We have not set up a full scale manufacturing yet, but we can easily manufacture the product in small to medium sized lots. How many Supertowels would you be needing? Torben