U.K. Tests Dirty Diaper Recycling
by Trey Granger
Published on November 17th, 2009
No Comments
When a new recycling facility opens next year in Birmingham, England, it won’t specialize in typical curbside products or other materials growing in recycling popularity, such as electronics and tires. This site will collect disposable diapers and transform the plastic into new roofing products manufactured by Small Planet Building.
Knowaste Ltd, which has been working on a way to address the problem of diaper waste, is facilitating the innovative recycling project. The site claims that the average baby goes through 6,000 diapers during its childhood, and those diapers take an estimated 500 years to decompose in a landfill.
While the plastic can be reprocessed into roofing tiles, ridges and even screws, this only accounts for about 98 percent of a used diaper. The rest, which we’ll call “organic waste,” for lack of a better word, will be used as renewable energy to help power the plant. Knowaste is working with the city of Birmingham to test the practicality of curbside collection of the diapers.
Knowaste is also working on incorporating feminine hygiene products into the process as they are made from a similar type of plastic. The company will first sterilize all material and separate the products into plastic, organic residue and absorbent polymers. The video below explains the process:
