California City Begins Diaper Recycling

With the launch of a diaper-recycling pilot program, the city of Santa Clarita, Calif., is hoping to stop sending untreated human waste to the landfill while supplying raw materials for recycled products such as oil filters and vinyl siding, according to a recent article at Balita.com, an online news service for the Los Angeles area.

During the six-month pilot project, 225 households will divert their disposable diapers to 32-gallon bins, which trash haulers will pick up weekly and take to a local processing plant run by Mississauga, Ontario-based Knowaste. Knowaste will remove and treat the raw sewage, pelletize the plastic for sale in the materials market and transform the fibers into high-quality fiber bales. Knowaste has been involved in an absorbent hygiene products recycling project in Arnhem, The Netherlands since 1999. The company is currently looking to establish other diaper recycling plants in countries including Japan, Korea and Germany.

The Santa Clarita pilot is funded by a $250,000 grant from the State of California and a matching grant from the city. Santa Clarita, in an effort to comply with a state law mandating a 50 percent reduction in trash sent to landfills by 2000, has already reduced its landfill waste by 40 percent via its other recycling programs, according to city spokeswoman Gail Ortiz.

About 100 babies are born in Santa Clarita each month, according to a Nov. 12 Reuters article at GreenBiz.com.