PATCH was born when James Dutton (the founder of Nutricare) noticed that while trying to protect his son’s adventure wounds his skin was in fact reacting badly to a common wound covering and making the wound worse. This puzzled James and he set off on his mission to find out why. He was shocked to discover that there is an array of chemicals that lurk in the common plasters. He became motivated to find better alternatives when he found that Charlie wasn’t alone with his reactions.
The result (after much evolution) is a completely compostable (and safe for worms) wound care product and Nutricare, the holding company that will ultimately support the development of various sustainable products.
We have got a world first with the product where you can buy it off the shelf and bury it straight into the soil. I’d love to see other brands and solutions follow our trend
James visited us in our home in Melbourne to sit down and talk about the future of wound care. It was a fascinating discussion. What was most interesting to us is that aside from the obvious environmental and social benefits, creating sustainable products just makes good business sense too. We discussed the following:
- James’ background growing up in Melbourne and how he came to create PATCH Strips (~01:45)
- How the interest began in creating a sustainable product evolved and how the product has been refined over time to be completely plastic free (~03:00)
- More about the PATCH Strips products and the benefits of natural and vegan ingredients (~08:10)
- Compostable vs biodegradable and how PATCH Strips are truly compostable, safe for worm farms and safe for humans too (~13:40)
- Some scary stats on the land that you could cover with plastic wound care products used in Australia and the USA (~19:40)
- Touching on PATCH Strips packaging approach to saving waste (~22:40)
- Making PATCH Strips attractive to those outside of the eco bubble (~23:40)
- Considering sustainability throughout the value chain (~27:20)
- Why James decided to tackle this problem and more thoughts around what it took to make it happen (~29:50)
- An overview of Nutricare and their vision for their product range and their workplace (~34:25)
- Thoughts on becoming a B-Corp and the importance of this movement in driving change (~37:30)
- PATCH as the only vegan wound care option (at the time of recording) (~43:20)
- Expansion plans for Nutricare / PATCH in the first aid space and throughout the trail landscape (~44:30)
- Plastic use in the hospital market (~46:00)
- More thoughts on the role of business in driving change and positive impact (~48:10)
- Exciting things coming up for PATCH, including expansion into the USA (~56:30)
- Advice for startups wanting to create a successful sustainable business (~58:40)
- James’ top sustainable living tip (~1:01:00)