The tale is reminiscent of the best Silicon Valley-type start-up: a businessman discovers a new use for a natural substance, creates a unique spill containment product, and begins filling orders out of his garage with his son’s help. Demand for the super absorbent, eco-friendly, residue-free formula quickly outstrips supply, and the family-run enterprise exits the garage for a 45,000-square-foot manufacturing facility in Atascadero, California.
October 2012 marked the 20th anniversary of Gary Tharp’s introduction to the mineral that became Impact Absorbents’ flagship product, XSORB Super Absorbent. Within a year, the company had a trio of distributors; by the end of the second year, that number had mushroomed to fourteen distributors selling 38 Impact products in 31 states. Today the company makes and sells more than 300 products to a global market, with customer concentration primarily on the West Coast.
What’s more, it’s a woman-owned, family business. Pat Tharp turned the saying, “a woman’s work is never done” on its ear, stewarding an environmentally-responsible business that lives up to its name: the XSORB Select product line, specifically designed to absorb oil and petroleum products from water, is licensed by the State of California’s EPA State Water Control Board for use on California waterways one of just ten absorbent products worldwide to be awarded this certification.
Where there’s a spill, there’s an excellent chance the XSORB product line is on the job. For example, XSORB has been used:
- to clean up a nuclear dumpsite
- for numerous oil spills in oceans, lakes and streams
- by the National Hot Rod Association, CalTrans and the Washington State Department of Transportation for oil cleanup.
Leading edge technology, research, training and a family feeling among Impact Absorbent’s growing staff, regardless of whether they’re blood relatives or not has made Impact a leader in its field, pioneering highly effective, economical absorbent products that are safe for the user and for the environment.Theyre dedicated to making a difference in the control and environmentally safe management of hazardous and non-hazardous spills.
