Each baby generates approximately one ton of waste only from the diapers he or she uses. That’s a lot of trash that goes straight to landfills (between 5,000 and 6,000 diapers), and takes nearly 500 years to decompose. Very few courageous parents dare to use cloth diapers, and these demand much more work, and more water and electricity to wash them. That’s why disposable diapers are used by a majority of babies.
Two companies are developing a plant, in the UK, in which diapers will be recycled, and the plant itself will run on the organic material contained in the diapers, to put it elegantly. The plant will start working on May 2010.
In the US, each year 27.4 billion diapers are thrown into landfills. In the UK, 8 million diapers a day. To start to reduce this gigantic amount of trash, Companies Versus Energy and Knowaste will together build a plant where diapers will be recycled, in the UK. It will open in May 2010 in Birmingham. They plan to build four more plants. Diapers will come from nurseries, nursing homes and hospitals.
Knowaste was created in 1989, and it recycles different kinds of absorbent hygiene products, such as bed-liners, adult incontinence, and feminine hygiene products.
How does the recycling process work? First the nappy material is washed. Then the products are broken apart in a shredder. The absorbent polymers are deactivated. Next, the plastic components are removed and sent to a different device where they are again cleaned. The plastic is compressed into small pellets, which can be sold for reuse. The organic waste is used to generate green energy, and the remaining parts of the diaper are once again checked to capture any leftovers of plastic or organic material.
Let’s hope the project works, and this fantastic initiative is spread to other cities and countries, helping to reduce the ridiculously large quantity of trash we generate.
Via: Ecogeek
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