They defy odds to create eco-friendly floss picks

The start-up scene is packed with flashy funding announcements, but what really goes on behind the glitz and glamour? In this series, The Straits Times sits down with founders to learn how they developed their ideas, and what it takes to ride the roller coaster of entrepreneurship.

- Timothy Goh

Unlike many other polytechnic students who call it a day after slogging through their homework, Mr Lingesh Sachuvanantham and Mr Javen Koh would continue to stay up to tackle a thumb-size problem found in toilet bins.

Dental floss picks, they propose, should be made from recyclable and biodegradable materials, as they are major contributors to plastic waste in landfills here and globally.

"We thought of creating eco-friendly toothbrushes, but there are too many alternatives in the market, so we chose to focus on floss picks instead—it's something that's often overlooked because we just throw them away after use...it's an everyday problem," said Mr Sachuvanantham, 19, a business student at Ngee Ann Polytechnic.

In 2022, he and Mr Koh, 20, founded Kloss after their idea of biodegradable and reusable floss picks clinched the second prize at the School Sustainability Challenge by Junior Achievement Singapore.

"The way we came up with the name really isn't that artistic—we just started spurting out gibberish: 'Bloss', 'Doss', 'Sloss'...that's how we came up with Kloss," said Mr Sachuvanantham.

With the prize money of $3,000, they bought a 3D printer at $220 and plunged right into the start-up world.

Kloss' dental floss picks are made from natural materials.

The handle is 3D-printed using polylactic acid, a biodegradable material derived from organic sources like corn starch and sugar cane, and the China-sourced floss is made from bamboo and charcoal fibres, which are biodegradable.

After the floss pick is used, it can be reused with new floss wound around the sturdy handles.