Stinky Biz: Diaper Recycling

Photo by pierrotsomepeople

A Canadian company called Knowaste has developed a system to extract the recyclable plastic from dirty disposable baby diapers for use in roofing tiles and plastic components. Fast Company has more:

Babies in the United States go through about 24 million diapers a year, contributing 3.4 million tons of waste to landfills. And, worldwide, the impact is too foul to contemplate: The average baby needs about 6,000 diapers before becoming potty-trained. There are a lot of babies in the world.

Disposable diapers are a major environmental problem—a cause of water contamination and landscape blight, and a challenge not likely to be solved with alternative products. And that’s before we even talk about other “absorbent hygiene products” (AHPs) like feminine hygiene and incontinence pads, which have their own place in landfill hell.

Video below.

Photo by pierrotsomepeople. Yes, I know these aren’t disposable diapers.

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