Diaper Recycling
MoveCloseDeleteAdmin

TV ClubHouse: Archives: Diaper Recycling

Hillbilly

Saturday, November 09, 2002 - 05:48 am EditMoveDeleteIP
Calif. Town to Recycle Diapers


By Associated Press

November 9, 2002, 6:31 AM EST


SANTA CLARITA, Calif. -- The city is launching what it says is the nation's first diaper recycling program.

"Santa Clarita has a long history in environmental stewardship and leadership, and we are very pleased to add one more innovative component to our city's overall recycling strategy," Mayor Frank Ferry said Friday.

With 72 percent of Santa Clarita's population under 44, advocates say the commuter city 20 miles northwest of Los Angeles is the ideal place to test a new technology.

The six-month pilot project, which will begin Tuesday, will include about 500 participants selected by the city. Each week, families will put their used diapers in specially designed plastic bags or bins to be picked up on trash day.

The project is funded by $500,000 in state and local funds and by Knowaste, a Canada-based company that has set up similar programs in Ontario and the Netherlands.

Knowaste built the recycling center that will salvage reusable plastics and wood pulp. The company will also contribute $20,000 to the city for public awareness activities.

The materials will be reused in nonfood packaging and products such as wallpaper, oil filters and shoe insoles.

Copyright © 2002, The Associated Press

Hillbilly

Saturday, November 09, 2002 - 05:49 am EditMoveDeleteIP
Looks like I have a 'real' excuse for going barefoot now!

Jagger

Saturday, November 09, 2002 - 05:55 am EditMoveDeleteIP
I'm hoping the next time my feet sweat they smell not stinky feet not stinky diapers. How'd you like to be the person sorting this truck load of recycling. I can't even change a dirty diaper anymore, sure wouldn't want that job.

Weinermr

Saturday, November 09, 2002 - 01:04 pm EditMoveDeleteIP
Wow. That's where I live, and I didn't even know. LOL

Car54

Saturday, November 09, 2002 - 01:24 pm EditMoveDeleteIP
New claim to fame...you live in the stinky diaper capitol of the country now!

Lumbele

Saturday, November 09, 2002 - 01:50 pm EditMoveDeleteIP
Just for you, Weiner. Enjoy!Pic_diaper_cake

Sia

Saturday, November 09, 2002 - 02:00 pm EditMoveDeleteIP
Lumbele, thanks for the detailed photo of the diaper cake; I've heard of those just recently, but hadn't found a close-up photo that showed the details. I wondered how it was put together! All the new diapers in the diaper cake are usable, right? Guess it's cute, and everyone can use diapers, so this is a reusable/functional baby shower centerpiece.

Hillbilly, I think that recycling plastic disposable diapers is a terrible idea! I don't think there's anything there that is reusable. How can they get rid of the poop without destroying the diaper? Yuk! Back to the drawing-board on that one, imo!! You sure this isn't just a gag? (Love the pun on that one, don'tcha?)

Hillbilly

Saturday, November 09, 2002 - 04:01 pm EditMoveDeleteIP
Not unless the Associated Press has started running jokes. Or turned into The Onion.

Zachsmom

Saturday, November 09, 2002 - 04:16 pm EditMoveDeleteIP
Sia...someone made me the diaper cake for my baby shower..it's decorated a bit different than the one above..they hung all sorts of "baby" stuff on it (pacifiers,washcloths, soaps,lotions etc.) it was so darned precious I did't have the heart to use it..lol..it's sitting at the top of my closet..I do use it as a model when I want to make someone one for their baby..:)

Egbok

Sunday, November 10, 2002 - 01:42 pm EditMoveDeleteIP
Hi Sia, I read about this Diaper Recycling in our local newspaper yesterday, so I'm guessing it's true.

And in today's paper we were shown a picture of Donald Trump announcing his plans to improve the Ocean Trails Golf Course located on the Palos Verdes Pennisula, to become the Southern California "Pebble Beach". He plans on spending approximately $25 million on this little project.

Sia

Sunday, November 10, 2002 - 07:02 pm EditMoveDeleteIP
I still don't want anything that's made out of recycled diapers! Yuk! . . .and I still don't want to believe that someone will try this. I mean, I realize that it's important to find something to do with the diapers; is incineration at high temp out of the question? I do hate the fact that disposable diapers comprise such a huge percentage of the matter in solid waste landfills. There must be another answer.

Melfie1222

Sunday, November 10, 2002 - 07:40 pm EditMoveDeleteIP
This was also in my Sunday newspaper. I say Right On if someone has actually found a way to recycle "disposable" diapers. For anyone who thinks this idea is disgusting, I'm curious - is it the recycled poop, the recycled plastic, or the combination of the two?

Weinermr

Sunday, November 10, 2002 - 07:45 pm EditMoveDeleteIP
Well I'm not sure it matters whether the stuff is in the regular garbage, or whether it's separated into its own container. Either way, it's in the garbage, and it's still gross.

Thanks for the errrrr.... cake..... Lumbele. I appreciate the sentiment!

Babyruth

Sunday, November 10, 2002 - 07:59 pm EditMoveDeleteIP
Here's the poop:

recyclingnappies

KNOWASTE

Recycling disposable diapers

Calamity

Sunday, November 10, 2002 - 08:19 pm EditMoveDeleteIP
I've had several pairs of shoes made from recycled tires, milk containers, and other materials. Sure, there's an instinctive "yuck" factor thinking about recycled diapers but unless you're Howard Hughes I figure most people should be able to cope with it. And really, it isn't as if shoes made from the dried skin of a cow or snake's corpse (or any other animal for that matter) sounds so sweet. There's lots of things - silk, hot dogs, Premarin, just to name a few - whose ingrediants should give people pause if they ever really thought about them.

Ever hear of sludge? That's when farmers spread waste material, often human waste, on fields to grow crops and produce. If you can live with that (and mind you, many people consider it a health hazard), I don't think a pair sandals made from recycled diapers should freak you out that much.

Besides, odds are this will probably get trapped in our country's interminable "is recycling efficient, cost-effective or even desirable?" debate anyway, so who knows if it will happen or not.

That diaper cake is really cute, by the way.

Egbok

Sunday, November 10, 2002 - 09:57 pm EditMoveDeleteIP
Babyruth,

"here's the poop" - LOL!!

Weinermr

Sunday, November 10, 2002 - 10:36 pm EditMoveDeleteIP
Thanks Babyruth. I knew it worked something like that, and I should have figured it out by the process of elimination.

Hillbilly

Monday, November 11, 2002 - 05:07 am EditMoveDeleteIP
I'm sure things will come out okay in the end. The oil filter->great idea, inside of my shoes->no thanks.

Lumbele

Monday, November 11, 2002 - 08:20 am EditMoveDeleteIP
Sia, Answer: cloth diapers! I tried that for "green" reasons 20 years ago, before all the bells and whistles by the 'disposable' industry. And promptly sent those "green convictions" out the window for convenience.
Babyruth, thanks for the info. North America is faaaaaar behind others on the environmental front, so someone making a genuine effort to keep these diapers out of landfills is admirable, though now I won't be able to look at my eggs (or use the "here's the poop" idiom) the same ever again.lol
Weiner, any time.

Sia

Monday, November 11, 2002 - 07:37 pm EditMoveDeleteIP
I don't have a problem with recycling; it's great to re-use things. I can see that the plastic from disposable diapers could be stripped off and MELTED DOWN (thereby sterilizing it) and made into other plastic things.

What's holding me up is the idea that you can't separate the poop-germs from the absorbent material inside the diapers. I would think that you could get rid of poop-germs by INCINERATING them, but then there would be nothing left of that part of the diaper to recycle. How can they sterilize the absorbent material adequately?

Most people don't dump the solids from a poopy diaper into a toilet and flush it to be dealt with in a sewage-treatment plant, so the diaper in most instances has a quantity of yucky stuff in it. How could you get that substance out of the fiberfill stuff and have it clean enough to re-use? My mind just won't let me make this leap.

Sia

Monday, November 11, 2002 - 07:40 pm EditMoveDeleteIP
Weiner, "process of elimination!" ROTFL!!! Yes, that deduction should have been alimentary, eh?