They’re the ultimate in convenience, but it's no secret that disposable diapers are making a mess for our planet. Here’s how Pura is tackling the problem in the UK.
The UK throws away around 3 billion disposable diapers annually, and 400,000 tonnes of disposable diaper waste ends up in landfill each year. Used diapers can take up to 500 years to degrade, long outliving the babies they were used on.
Now, thanks to Pura and its partner NappiCycle, with support from the Welsh Government, used diapers are being repurposed - for a super cool road resurfacing trial in Wales, UK.
From late February 2022, parents and other drivers using a stretch of road on the A487 between Cardigan to Aberystwyth in Wales may be unaware that they’re driving over 1.4 miles of roadway containing recovered fibres from over 100,000 used diapers!
If you were to line these diapers up - end-to-end - you’d get an 11km stretch of diapers!
The road to change
For the road resurfacing project, a total of 4.3 tonnes of recovered fiber from diapers will be added to the bitumen that glues together the asphalt road surfaces.
The “diaper-enhanced” asphalt is even more durable than standard asphalt but with a reduced carbon footprint, so provides a green solution to road re-surfacing for the Welsh Government.
Diaper recycling in Wales
Diaper recycling is currently a local authority offered service available only in Wales where waste collection is considered to be more advanced than many other places across the UK.
Through South Wales based NappiCycle, the diapers are cleansed, and plastics and cellulose fibres separated for re-use.
100% of the soiled diapers arriving at the plant are processed, so absolutely nothing is sent to landfill. The urine extracted from the diapers is even reutilised!
The recovered cellulose can be repurposed not just for road surfacing, but for notice boards for schools and offices, panelling, under laminate flooring and other insulation.
Pura and NappiCycle
Guy Fennell, Pura founder, set up Pura to make buying eco-friendly products easier for parents.
But he is determined to drive even bigger change for the planet. This led to him teaming up with NappiCycle in 2020. The Pura NappiCycle partnership has kept 40 million diapers out of landfill - that's 800,000 diapers from being landfilled every single week.
It’s Pura’s mission to now bring diaper recycling to the entire UK and beyond... watch this space!
