Each year over 160 million diapers (or nappies as they are known in the UK) are sent to Scotland’s landfills. However a new recycling scheme is aiming to take those used diapers and turn them into park benches, garden furniture, decking, bollards, railway sleepers, fencing, roof tiles and cardboard. Other bathroom wastewill also be recycled, including incontinence products, wet wipes, nappy sacks and cotton wool.
The scheme will be trialled within four Scottish councils – Fife, Stirling, Perth and Kinross and North Lanarkshire – and across 36,000 homes. It will run for six months at first, but if successful, it will be taken nationwide.
The project is funded by Zero Waste Scotland, who hope the project will not only make it easier for parents in the four pilot areas to do their bit for the environment, but also cut down on the 450,000 nappies that are dumped every day in Scotland. Apparently a baby (in Scotland) uses on average 4.16 nappies per day and less than 10% are reusable.