Caducel

Returns in its time.

A compostable paper towel and facial tissue that holds like cloth in the hand — and breaks down on cue when its season comes.

CompostableNo microplasticsThermally gated

Durable wipes don't compost. Compostable wipes don't last. Caducel refuses the trade — strong and wet-tough in use, then engineered to let go in the heat of a compost.

The cue is temperature, not moisture. So it survives the sink, the spill and the wipe, and disintegrates only where you mean it to.

The product, made visible

What it looks like.

Paper towel roll

Cloth-strong sheets of plant fibre — fully compostable.

Facial tissue

Surface-soft and low-lint, from the same gated web.

The sheet

Tough in the hand — releasing on cue, as the fragment shows.

The thermal gate

Built to last. Made to leave.

Below the gate, the web stays bonded and wet-strong. Cross into composting heat and the bonds release. Move the slider.

Intact
23°C
Use temperature

Room and tap-water range. The web behaves like a durable cloth — full wet strength, no breakdown.

20°C · hand50°C · gate62°C · compost
Structural strength100%

Technology

Heat is the cue. Everything follows from that.

A material that gets wet for a living can't use water as its off-switch. Caducel makes temperature the trigger — invisible during use, unavoidable in a compost.

Three ways to build the gate

One principle, engineered three ways.

Embodiment A

Thermally-labile binder

A low-melting biodegradable binder holds the web in use, then softens at the trigger and releases the fibres.

Embodiment B

Latent accelerant

A sequestered agent stays inert until composting heat activates it, then accelerates hydrolysis of the load-bearing fibres.

Embodiment C

Microcapsule

Capsules with a shell tuned to rupture at the gate release a debonding agent on cue — opened only by heat.

Inside the web

A layered structure, tuned through the thickness.

soft absorbent gating

Use-side layer

Surface-soft, low-lint cellulose for skin and feel.

Absorbent core

Plant-fibre body carrying capacity and wet strength.

Gating layer

Where the thermal trigger lives — binder, accelerant or capsules tuned to the gate temperature.

The surface, up close

A nonwoven, not a paper.

Fibre, not fibreglass.

Interlaced plant-cellulose and biodegradable fibres give the web its cloth-like strength and absorbency — with the thermal trigger dispersed through the structure, invisible until the gate is crossed.

The physics

The gate is where the polymer changes state.

Plant-based polyesters are glassy and stable at room temperature and turn mobile above their glass transition, where water uptake and chain scission accelerate sharply. Caducel tunes release to sit just above ordinary use and right at composting heat — the same property that makes it stable in your hand is what makes it leave in the compost.

~23°CUse. Glassy, bonded, wet-strong.
~50°CThe gate. The state transition begins.
~58°CCompost. Mobile, hydrolysing, releasing.

From hand to soil

A clean line through its whole life.

01

In use

Cloth-strong, wet-tough, soft on skin.

02

To compost

Binned with food and garden waste.

03

Crosses the gate

At composting heat the bonds release.

04

Returns to soil

Plant fibre becomes compost.

Products

The same gated web, tuned to the task.

One platform, two products. Choose one to see how the gate and the build change.

Paper towels
Gate temperature~52 °C
Basis weight45 g/m²
Plies2-ply
Disintegration≥90% · EN 13432

Engineered for the spill and the scrub.

High wet strengthAbsorbentEmbossed

Where it sits

The only column without a compromise.

Property
Caducel
Conventional tissue
Synthetic nonwoven
Ambient compostable
Durable & wet-strong in use
Fully compostable
No persistent microplastics
Breaks down on a deliberate cue
Survives water during use

Who it's for

Anywhere a wipe is used and thrown away.

Home

Kitchen and bath wiping that goes in the food-waste bin, not the landfill.

Foodservice

High-turnover wiping without adding persistent waste to the stream.

Hospitality

A premium feel and a sustainability story guests can see.

Facilities

Away-from-home dispenser formats where volume and disposal cost most.

About

The idea.

Caducel began with a stubborn question: why must a wipe choose between lasting and leaving?

Durable wipes persist for generations. Compostable ones fall apart before they're useful. The answer wasn't a new fibre — it was a new cue. By making heat, not moisture, the trigger for breakdown, the same web can be tough in the hand and gone in the compost.

Caducel is built around that single idea — and patented around it.

Roadmap

From filing to shelf.

Now

Provisional filed

Priority secured on the thermally-gated release and its mechanisms. Micro-entity filing.

Next

Bench validation

Wet-strength at use temperature and triggered disintegration above the gate, measured.

Then

Compost certification

Disintegration and biodegradation assessed against EN 13432 / ASTM D6400.

Then

Pilot production

Converting-line trials proving the gate survives manufacture and converting.

Goal

Market

Towels and facial tissue, retail and away-from-home.

What it leaves behind

Plant fibre in. Soil out.

Standard
90%
Target disintegration under EN 13432 / ASTM D6400 once triggered, within roughly twelve weeks.
Footprint
Zero
Persistent microplastics — plant cellulose and biodegradable fibre, no lasting synthetics.
Cue
~50°C
The thermal gate: above ordinary use, at or below composting heat.

Contact

Start a conversation.

Whether you're a retailer, a converter, a composter or the press — here's the door.

General

Questions about the material, the gate or availability.

hello@caducel.com

Partnerships

Manufacturing, converting, distribution and retail.

partners@caducel.com

Press & samples

Media, sample requests and the brand kit.

press@caducel.com

Questions

The honest answers.

Will it fall apart while I'm using it?
No. The release cue is heat, not water. Below the gate it stays bonded and wet-strong, so it handles spills and wiping like a durable cloth.
Home compost or industrial?
The gate can be tuned to the target environment — a lower trigger for the cooler peaks of home composting, a higher one for in-use robustness with industrial composting near 58 °C.
Why heat instead of a dissolving wipe?
A water trigger would defeat a paper towel — its whole job is to get wet. Heat is a cue the product never meets in ordinary use but always meets in a compost.
Does it leave microplastics?
No. The web is plant cellulose and biodegradable fibre, with no persistent synthetic component.
What's the patent status?
Patent pending. The thermally-gated release and its mechanisms are the subject of a filing; specifications are being finalised against bench data.

A material that knows when to go.

Inquire