Plastic from used diapers
What could be less recyclable than used baby diapers? Indeed, despite their enormous production volumes, they're a prime example of the linear economy: used once and sent to a landfill or incinerator. Meanwhile, they contain valuable nonwoven materials and polyolefin-based films.
Apparently, after comparing all this data, three major European companies decided to experiment. Woosh, a manufacturer of diapers made from recycled materials, Borouge International, a leader in polyolefin solutions, and BlueAlp, a major player in the chemical recycling market, teamed up to create a closed-loop recycling system for used baby diapers. And they succeeded!
They demonstrated that plastic can be extracted from used baby diapers and processed into certified pyrolysis oil for further plastic production. Moreover, this can be done on an industrial scale.
The experiment itself was made possible by the already established Woosh diaper return system, optimized for recycling, and the first industrial recycling cycles were conducted at the BlueAlp plant. There, the previously obtained plastic fractions were processed using pyrolysis technology to produce pyrolysis oil.
“Chemically recycling the plastic from used diapers is anything but straightforward. It requires careful pre-processing to meet the specifications of the pyrolysis process,” says Peter Voortmans, Borealis Vice President Marketing Consumer Products. “Together with Woosh and BlueAlp, we’ve been able to solve this challenge, showing what’s possible when teams work closely together with a shared goal.”
Woosh has already begun scaling up its model: diapers are currently being collected for recycling across Belgium, with France and the Netherlands next. "To see the plastic we recover from used diapers validated as feedstock for new polymer production, and potentially for new diapers in the future, is exactly what we set out to achieve. This is what closing the loop actually looks like," says Jeff Stubbe, CEO of Woosh.
Materials from the website bluealp.nl were used.
