Biodegradable Diapers And Recycling Diapers

In retail stores, the barrage intensifies—we find superabsorbent diapers, no-frills versions, teddy-bear prints and stretch-waist diapers. just when we wondered, "What will they think of next?" along came his-and-hers blue and pink diapers with special gender-specific absorbency zones. Then P & G began rolling out its new Phases product, diapers for each stage of infancy. Kimberly-Clark followed quickly with a similar line called Baby Steps. But the biggest potential threat to current sales are consumer worries about the environmental impact of these bulky disposables. A host of new features aim squarely at squelching these concerns—some disposable diapers are now touted as "chemical-free", "biodegradable" or "compostable" (well, almost compostable).

First, biodegradable diapers were advocated as a quick-fix solution to the solid waste problem. But environmentalists and the major diaper manufacturers both criticized this innovation. They argued that chances were dismal that these so-called biodegradables would break down any more quickly than regular disposables under all those layers of compacted garbage.

Then Kimberly-Clark and Procter & Gamble stepped into the breach with elaborate plans to recycle and compost diaper products. Kimberly-Clark is currently studying methods to recycle diaper materials into industrial products. The company also claims that several composting studies, including one with the American National Sanitation Foundation, are under way, although company officials were reluctant to provide details.

Recycling diapers requires a series of steps: collection, cleaning, separation and, finally, reprocessing into new materials. In Seattle, Procter & Gamble experimented with separating and recycling the two main ingredients of diapers—plastics and fluff pulp. The corporation envisioned new products such as cardboard boxes and computer paper from the pulp, and flowerpots, garbage bags and "lumber" from the plastics. P & G is sponsoring a feasibility study for a similar project by a Toronto-based company. But the Seattle project has since been wound down. It proved that disposable diapers can be recycled, but the price tag is just too high.

Dennis Darby, a spokesperson with P & G in Toronto, admits that costs are a big obstacle, adding that recycling is very "diaper-specific." "You're only getting at 2 percent of the waste." He's a lot keener on municipal composting, saying enthusiastically that composting could tackle not just the 2 percent of landfill taken up by disposable diapers, but at least half of our garbage problem.

In October, 1990, Procter & Gamble announced a worldwide commitment of twenty-three million dollars to promote municipal composting of garbage. A sizeable chunk of this money is earmarked for grants and technical assistance to communities to encourage them to divert their solid waste from landfills into composting streams.

But there's composting and then there's composting. At its simplest, of course, composting is "cooking" kitchen and garden wastes in backyard and apartment-style containers of various kinds, which in turn yields the nutrient-rich "black gold" so sought after by flower and vegetable gardeners.

At the other end of the spectrum, there's Municipal Solid Waste (MSW) composting, which is exactly the program P & G is trying to promote. As envisioned by Procter & Gamble, MSW composting works like this:. all household trash is collected and delivered to a composting facility. After a crude screening of non-compostable materials such as glass, metal and plastic (which are sent away for recycling), the rest is pushed through a series of screens and a metal separator both before and after composting, to sort out undesirable elements.

Some MSW composting systems are already in operation in the United States. One is a private facility in St. Cloud, Minnesota, which includes disposable diapers in its waste stream. In a demonstration project, Procter & Gamble used this facility to see how increasing the load of diapers in the stream would affect compost quality. According to P & G, the results of this experiment were "promising." But for what and whom? A company official later told the Toronto Board of Health that the St. Cloud diaper compost is Grade 1—it can be used in Minnesota for Christmas tree farming, but is not safe for agricultural use.

Similar European facilities have had problems with heavy metals and shards of plastic, glass and grit when they compost the whole waste stream. Concerns about the purity of this compost are echoed in the United States. John Ruston, a waste-disposal specialist with the Environmental Defense Fund explained the difficulties very simply in a recent article in the New York Times: "If you try to compost an undifferentiated waste stream, you'll end up mixing batteries with old spaghetti and wind up with contamination."

John Hanson, executive director of the Recycling Council of Ontario, says high-quality compost is essential to the viability of large-scale programs. He favors composting of food and yard wastes, with possibly some low-value paper products such as egg cartons. If municipalities move to large-scale facilities, he'd prefer to see at least a three-stream system. Rather than simply setting out a bag of undifferentiated garbage each week, householders would separate their trash into wet (yard and food wastes), dry (recyclables) and the leftover refuse.

Procter & Gamble came under the gun recently for advertising that promoted diaper composting under the headline: "The new life cycle of a disposable diaper." The series of eight illustrations showed a diaper being miraculously transformed through gradual breakdown from its "just-used" state, finally emerging as a fertile soil conditioner sprouting a healthy young tree seedling. Great idea for the backyard compost heap? Nope. The fine print points out that the diaper is only 80 percent compostable and "must be broken down in the municipal composting system." Twenty percent of the product—the plastic outer cover, tapes and waistband, plus some of the glue and superabsorbent gelling material—simply won't degrade in any accelerated composting system.

Another slight problem: facilities like those in St. Cloud, Minnesota are few and far between. There are none that we know of in Canada. It seems that people have been mislead by this advertisement, including a friend of ours with an MBA. They assume that these composting systems already exist virtually everywhere—and that's what the fine print of this advertisement implies.

Few if any municipalities are even planning composting systems that will welcome diapers. At a recent meeting of recycling coordinators from across Ontario, there was enthusiasm for yard and food composting but according to the Ontario Recycling Council's John Hanson, "The seven who are currently collecting curbside organics all specified that they don't want to compost diapers."

Like many other North American cities, Toronto is considering a composting facility as part of its effort to cut down on solid refuse going to landfill sites. City councillor Elizabeth Amer says that food and organic matter such as kitchen and yard waste would be the first target for a Toronto composting project. She adds, "Anyone who suggests that disposables be composted is missing the point. What we really need to do is reduce consumption.".

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