New Sellars pads contain 80% cotton.(Nonwoven News: A Look at What's Going On In The Industry)

In an environmental approach to an environmental application, Wisconsin-based Sellars has launched EverSoak Oil Only Pads, sorbents made with 80% cotton that carry the Cotton Incorporated Absorblend trademark. The new technology uses a by-product of the cotton ginning process to create a sorbent that is up to 50% more effective than polypropylene alternatives and uses a renewable cotton resource.

"We wanted to create a sorbent that not only performed better but was better for the environment in production as well as purpose," said John Sellars, executive vice president of marketing. "Cotton proved to be the ideal source material." Available as pads, rolls and split rolls, the EverSoak Oil Only products with patent-pending Q-CEL technology are high-performance sorbents for oil-based spills large and small.

Mr. Sellars points to the environmental gains U.S. cotton production has made during the last 25 years in reducing its water consumption and reliance on pesticides as tipping the scales in cotton's favor as a source material. But the Sellars product goes one step further by using a ginning by-product, rather than the long staple fibers used in textile and most other nonwoven products. "Using cotton staple can be expensive and generally entails a scouring and bleaching process," acknowledged Mr. Sellars. "We wanted to get around that by using cotton linters." Linters are short fibers that remain on the cottonseed after the ginning process removes the longer staples.

The challenge for Sellars, which has been in business for 24 years, was that no machinery existed that could transform the raw linters into a sorbent-friendly material. But Sellars had a novel solution to this problem. "Since there was no machine that could run the linters, we decided to design and build one ourselves," Mr. Sellars explained.

The EverSoak Oil Only Pads are both hydrophobic and oleophilic, soaking up oil, but floating on the surface of water, which makes them uniquely suited to neutralizing the damage of spills of oil spills oil-based chemicals on water.

SCA has introduced new Tena moderate long pads with aloe vera in selected Canadian retail stores such as Shoppers Drug Mart, Jean Coutu and Loblaws. In the U.S. the product is available at stores such as WaI-Mart, Target and Walgreens.

"We recognized that many customers appreciate the benefits of aloe vera in products such as baby diapers, facial tissues and lotions. So we wanted to add that little extra to the Tena bladder protection products," said

Lauren Entrekin, SCA product director for pads in North America. Consumer tests were held prior to launch with very positive feedback. A majority of consumers stated they were interested in purchasing the product, associating aloe vera in the pad with being soft, gentle and comfortable. The Tena Moderate Long Pads are designed to accommodate moderate to frequent urine loss. They are soft and contoured for discretion, comfort and fit.

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