Landfill, disposable diapers

Disposables are also considered to be an environmental threat. Only some of the materials used in the diapers are biodegradable (the wood pulp and SAP). The polyethylene and polyester sheets are not biodegradable neither is the elastic used for better fit, nor the polypropylene used for the tape that is employed as a fastener. Disposable diapers account for up to 2 percent of the total volume of landfills in the United States. The lifetime of the diaper in the landfill depends on several environmental factors soil condition, groundwater flow, and the presence of other materials in the soil. see also Matertals Science Polymers, Synthetic. 

Every year in the US alone, up to 20 billion disposable diapers are sent to landfill sites. It is estimated that diaper waste comprises up to 2% of all household waste. 

Viruses in soiled disposable diapers can survive for over two weeks, and run-off from landfills containing disposable diapers can contaminate groundwater supplies. 

Disposable diapers have contributed to the quantity of textile products discarded in landfills... 

Plastics have basically an infinite lifetime. Nothing in nature does a good job at degrading them. If you bury that plastic plate. Styrofoam cup, or disposable diaper in a landfill and then dig it up ten years later, there will be no change. You could even dig it up a hundred years later and get the same results. Waste containing plastics will be with us for a long time. 

New plant construction will bring increased capacity to levels of regional overcapacity, which will force producers to export large quantities of product to keep supply and demand in balance. Considerable consolidation of ownership has occurred during the last five years and the investment and output for each new line has grown enormously. New production lines can produce up to 1 billion m of coverstock per year more than doubling the annual output of lines built only 5 years ago. Environmental issues have had relatively httle effect on either production or products. Consumers prefer the convenience of disposable diapers, and studies have shown that diapers are still a relatively small contributor to landfill space. 

Disposable diapers are the third largest single consumer item in landfills, and represent about 4% of solid waste. In a house with a child in diapers, disposables make up 50% of household waste. Disposable diapers generate 60 times more solid waste and use 20 times more raw materials, like crude oil and wood pulp. The manufacture and use of disposable diapers amount to 2.3 times more water wasted than cloth. Over 300 pounds of wood, 50 pounds of petroleum feedstocks, and 20 pounds of chlorine are used to produce disposable diapers for one baby each year. Disposable diapers contain traces of dioxin, an extremely toxic by-product of the paper-bleaching process. It is carcinogenic chemical, the most toxic of all cancer-linked chemicals. (Realdiapers.org/diaper-facts, 2015 Shin Abu, 2007). 

Another problem related to disposable diapers is disposal after use [18,20]. The weight of a disposable diaper for children is approximately 40 to 50 g, which increases to about 200 g after the use. The annual consumption of disposable diapers in the world is approximately 56 billion, which results in 11.2 million tons of waste. In Japan, the annual consumption is 4.6 billion diapers, which becomes 0.92 million tons of waste. In the Western countries, waste sanitary products are used for landfill whereas in Japan they are incinerated. In the case of landfill,... 

The risk of diarrheal iUness in daycare centers has been clearly linked with contamination of hands and items such as toys, so prevention of such contamination is an important step in controlling the spread of iUness in this setting. It should be noted here that, when thrown away in the mbbish, a soiled disposable diaper is typically wrapped tightly using the diaper tapes, thus providing additional containment of the feces until safely disposed off by incineration or in a landfill. In contrast, reusable cloth diapers must be retained and laundered, allowing many opportunities for contamination of hands, surfaces, or other aspects of the environment with fecal organisms. 

P G is working with converters and end users. This aspect of the value chain includes conversion of the formulated resins into initial forms, like films, fibers or molded articles, as well as secondary conversion into nonwovens, laminated packages and papers. End users then use these to make or package consumer or industrial produets, like diapers, hamburgers or computers. Finally, the produets are used and then eventually disposed of in one of several ways (eomposting, landfill, digestion, incineration) where the biocycle is completed. 

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