By Business & Finance 
Anne Butterly, CEO of Easydry, leads the Certified B Corp in pioneering eco-friendly disposable towels. Easydry sets the standard for innovation, sustainability and hygiene.
What inspired you to start your company?
My mission was to create a range of innovative, eco-friendly textiles to revolutionise the industries that depend upon cotton, plastic and foil. The idea for Easydry came to me back in 2003 when I was living in a house with six other women in Dublin. I was constantly frustrated by the piles of stained towels left behind after my flatmates coloured their hair, and I went looking for a more practical, eco-friendly alternative.
When I discovered that no such product existed, and that traditional cotton towels had a significant environmental footprint, I realised there was a clear gap in the market. That’s when Easydry was born — the world’s first eco-friendly disposable towel.
Over two decades later, Easydry has become the global pioneer in sustainable disposable towels, setting the standard for innovation and environmental responsibility across industries including hairdressing, barbering, fitness, beauty and hospitality.
What is your core product/service offering and what gap in the market are you trying to address?
Easydry is a B Corp Certified company offering compostable textile solutions that save billions of litres of water, cut CO2 emissions, and reduce energy consumption across industries like hair, beauty, and hospitality. I founded Easydry two decades ago, revolutionising textiles with sustainable innovation, including biodegradable towels sold in over 25 countries.
The company offers a full product range including hair, beauty, gym, healthcare and hospitality products. The Easydry range is sold in over twenty-five countries worldwide. When setting up Easydry, I was determined to grow Easydry into the world leader in eco-friendly disposable towels, and as the only alternative to cotton for thousands of businesses.
Some of the markets we have expanded into include Australia, New Zealand, Canada, Finland, Iceland, Malta, and the USA.
Is there a particular sustainability related issue that your business is trying to solve?
Easydry is a new-generation textile, an innovative and highly functional drying material that guarantees complete hygiene and environmental sustainability. Our product is made from natural fibres and this towel eliminates the need for cotton towels, and traditional laundry in businesses around the globe.
Easydry towels and the boxes they are packed in are FSC Certified which means they are from sustainably and ethically managed forests. Easydry have also passed their FSC recertification audit, celebrating over 10 years of being FSC Certified. Easydry’s commitment to sustainability throughout the past two decades has been recognised by achieving B Corp Certification in June 2022. B Corp Certified businesses meet the highest standards of verified social and environmental performance, public transparency, and legal accountability to balance profit and purpose. Easydry was the first B Corp certified disposable towel company in the world and one of the first ten B Corps in Ireland.
What motivated you to apply to the Accelerate Green programme?
My hope is to accelerate the company’s growth through sustainability initiatives, product development and market expansion, and applying for the Accelerate Green programme was the right move. The program is helping to provide strategic support for scaling our global impact while achieving milestones in circular economy practices and green innovation.
I hope that we will grow our skills and knowledge in the circular economy and strategic scaling of sustainability innovations. This programme will also give us the opportunity to develop partnerships to promote ethical disposal solutions and a closed-loop systems, while also accessing investment opportunities to further our sustainability goals.
Easydry’s mission to combat climate change through water conservation, carbon reduction, and sustainable product innovation perfectly aligns with the objectives of the Accelerate Green programme. Easydry has already saved over 11.7 billion litres of water globally, reduced CO2 emissions significantly, and champions circular economy solutions with its compostable product lines.
How important is professional networking for you as you grow your business?
For any company CEO, networking is very important. It helps you build your brand and develop critical relationships for the success of your business. We are an international business exporting from our base in Ireland, so will need a mixture of technical and commercial staff who are willing to engage with clients and partners worldwide. For us, it is also important in terms of attracting investment, building our client base, promoting our value proposition, finding business partners, and recruiting staff.
What’s your long-term vision for the company?
With Easydry winning the prestigious Green Technology Award at the Green Awards 2025, and also being honoured with the Sustainable Impact Award for a Medium Business at the Sustainable Business Impact Awards 2024, we hope this recognition will inspire even more industries to embrace innovative, sustainable solutions like Easydry and take meaningful steps towards reducing their environmental impact.
Easydry’s long-term vision is to expand our impact beyond the salon industry, positioning ourselves as leaders in promoting circular economy principles within the global textile industry. We aim to enter high-volume sectors such as hotels, large gym groups, & healthcare, where our sustainable textile solutions will make a transformative difference.
Our goal is to show these businesses how Easydry outperforms traditional cotton towels and microfibre options, not only in terms of performance for skin and hair but also in terms of massive environmental benefits. By switching to Easydry, large businesses could make a substantial positive impact on their local regions through significant water savings and CO2 reductions.
Our five-year plan is to triple the company’s turnover. We hope to achieve this by scaling the business in the US hair sector. There are over 100,000 salons in the USA in comparison to 30,000 across UK and Ireland. Developing a consumer retail range targeting large USA stores and targeting new volume industries such as Hotel & Spas, where there is large requirement for clean fresh towels every day.
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