Flush-a-Bye, Baby
Jason and Kimberley Graham-Nye, eco-diaper entrepreneurs, answer Grist's questions
08 May 2006
The Graham-Nye clan.
What are your job titles?
What does your company do? 
Manufacture and market the world's only flushable diaper. Every day in the U.S., 50 million waste-filled diapers go into the landfill where they sit for up to 500 years. Diapers are the third-largest contributor to landfills. Flushing puts poop where it belongs -- in the toilet. Not the landfill.
What are you working on at the moment? 
The gDiaper goods.
Thrills and spills of a start-up, and we're right in the middle of the whitewater, as our chief culture officer says. We're gearing up for national rollout and preparing to launch a fashion line of our "little g" pants.
How do you get to work?
Roll out of bed and come downstairs. Traffic is a bugger.
What long and winding road led you to your current position?
Jason: Extremely linear -- stock broker, teacher, translator, writer, event planner, diaper executive.Kim: Teacher in Japan, orphanage in Mexico, AIDS work in Africa, writer, event planner in Australia, diaper diva.
Where were you born? Where do you live now?
Jason: I was born in Sydney, Australia, and live now in Portland, Ore. If the rain doesn't stop ... Florida, San Diego, or Hawaii?Kim: Born Montreal, Canada; ditto P-town.
What has been the worst moment in your professional life to date?
Jason: Death of major investor. "Fire in the plant!"Kim: Making the same mistake twice.
What's been the best?
Jason: Seeing gDiapers on store shelves for the first time. Kim: Feeling like we're doing something worthwhile. And getting feedback from parents saying they feel like what they're doing matters as well.
What environmental offense has infuriated you the most?
Jason: Cigarette butts on the beach in Sydney. If an individual does that, there's nothing stopping a large corporation from polluting on a large scale.Kim: Individual selfishness. We all need to think about our lives in a broader context.
Who is your environmental hero?
What's your environmental vice?
Jason: Definitely golf. There's gotta be a way to develop a hydroponic golf course.Kim: I'm sure I don't eat nearly enough organic chocolate.
How do you spend your free time? Read any good books lately?
Jason: I run, run, run; marathon No. 5 is coming up. And I read; my recent favorite is Flow by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi.Kim: Spending time with my boys: Jason, Fynn (3), Harper (1), and Mohican (canine).
What's your favorite meal?
Jason: Mum's roast lamb. Can't forget the roasted veggies!Kim: Does chocolate count as a meal?
Which stereotype about environmentalists most fits you?
We drive a Prius. Gave birth to our boys in the water, at home, without drugs. Love the beach.
What's your favorite place or ecosystem?
Bondi Beach, Australia.
If you could institute by fiat one environmental reform, what would it be?
Jason: Product stewardship. If you make it, you must take it back after it's been used. Kim: It's just like I tell my boys: "Clean up your own mess."
Who was your favorite musical artist when you were 18? How about now?
What's your favorite movie?
Which actor would play you in the story of your life?
If you could have every InterActivist reader do one thing, what would it be?
Read Cradle to Cradle. And see a sunrise at Byron Bay, New South Wales, Australia. That'll change your life.
Also in Grist
The Week's Most Popular
From the Archives
Roger That. Roger Mustalish, Amazon researcher and protector, answers questions.
Have You Chatted With Ford Lately? David Ford, biz consultant and forest advocate, answers questions.
Youth the Force. Terrain Johnson and Colleen Contrisciane of Earth Force answer questions.
