Up to now, nappies, adult incontinence and feminine hygiene products (AHPS) have been one of the few remaining household items that got straight to landfill or incineration facilitites. AHPs do not belong in landfills. They take 500 years to decompose, they contain human waste and we can salvage the raw materials.

The use of disposable nappies has increased over the past 20 years as a result of their convenience. A baby will use 6,000 disposable nappies before being potty trained at an average age of 2.5 years. Some other eerie facts are:

• One baby's disposable nappies fill 40 black sacks in a year
• In the UK around 8 million disposable nappies are used every day
• In the UK alone, I about 18 million women use sanitary protection products which generate 200,000 tons of waste per year.

The U.K. companies Versus Energy and Knowaste have teamed up to build the first diaper recycling plant in England, and it will be located in a region that was once the heart of the Industrial Revolution. The new recycling plant will power itself with sustainable energy generated from the organic materials recovered from disposable diapers.

Organic waste accounts for only 2% of the materials in “pre-owned” disposable diapers. What happens to the other 98%? It will be dried, sterilized, and separated into reusable paper pulp and plastic. The end use of those materials has not yet been announced but based on their past experience, roof tiles, shoe insoles, wallpaper, plastic “wood,” and industrial thickeners are likely candidates. The companies focus on tackling “difficult” waste, and that includes diapers, bed liners, feminine hygiene products, incontinence products used by adults and the disabled, and related waste from hospitals. With a rising, aging global population and the prospect of developing countries bringing more consumers into the disposable product fold, this waste stream will soon become a torrent.

The process involves three key stages:

1. Used nappies, adult incontinence and feminine hygiene products (AHPs) are collected and transported to a plant.
2. The process sterilizes the AHP material, deactivates and mechanically separates the individual components: organic residue, plastic and super absorbent polymers.
   he reclaimed components can then be made into recycled products such as:
   • Plastic wood
   • Plastic roofing tiles
   • Absorption materials
   • Process sweeteners
   • Recycled paper products
   • Green energy

Check these related articles:

• Save money with Earth-Friendly Diapers
• It's a dirty work but...
• The business of dirty diapers
• Diaper Recycling