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A highway paved with recycled diapers may change the cloth vs. disposables debate
https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-solutions/2022/02/18/diaper-highway-nappy-recycling/
LLANARTH, Wales — No, it doesn’t smell like poop.
We thought it’d be worth preempting the obvious question even before describing how, in what might be a world-first, more than 100,000 dirty, disposable diapers — or “nappies,” as they are called here — are being used to help pave a road in west Wales.
This is a pilot project with intriguing environmental implications. A proliferation of diaper highways could reduce landfill waste — and influence parents around the globe weighing the vexingly difficult decision between cloth vs. disposables.
These particular diapers were rinsed — thoroughly, don’t worry. Then shredded into fibrous gray pellets and mixed with asphalt that a work crew clad in bright orange slathered over a 1.5-mile stretch of winding highway this week.
“You’re not sure what to expect when you turn up to a nappy road,” said Ben Lake, a politician who represents this area in Britain’s Parliament. But, taking a deep breath as he strolled alongside the freshly paved, still glistening road, he pronounced: “It smells like — road.”
Lake said the nappy road “could be a game-changer for how we approach infrastructure in Wales,” and while people could still be encouraged to shift to cloth diapers, this nonetheless helped to tackle the “here and now” problem of a mountain of disposables thrown away every year.
LLANARTH, Wales — No, it doesn’t smell like poop.
We thought it’d be worth preempting the obvious question even before describing how, in what might be a world-first, more than 100,000 dirty, disposable diapers — or “nappies,” as they are called here — are being used to help pave a road in west Wales.
This is a pilot project with intriguing environmental implications. A proliferation of diaper highways could reduce landfill waste — and influence parents around the globe weighing the vexingly difficult decision between cloth vs. disposables.
These particular diapers were rinsed — thoroughly, don’t worry. Then shredded into fibrous gray pellets and mixed with asphalt that a work crew clad in bright orange slathered over a 1.5-mile stretch of winding highway this week.
“You’re not sure what to expect when you turn up to a nappy road,” said Ben Lake, a politician who represents this area in Britain’s Parliament. But, taking a deep breath as he strolled alongside the freshly paved, still glistening road, he pronounced: “It smells like — road.”
Lake said the nappy road “could be a game-changer for how we approach infrastructure in Wales,” and while people could still be encouraged to shift to cloth diapers, this nonetheless helped to tackle the “here and now” problem of a mountain of disposables thrown away every year.
The article mentions projects in other countries using waste plastic to make longer lasting roads. The diaper idea is interesting since there is so much of it in western countries. They recycle diapers in Wales but nobody wants the recycled product, so they look to options like pavement.
