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posted by martyb on Monday October 08 2018, @07:27PM   Printer-friendly
from the coming-clean dept.

Phys.org:

[...] buried in each used nappy [diaper -Ed.] are hidden treasures, according to Marcello Somma, who is head of research and development at Fater, an Italian joint venture between Procter & Gamble and Angelini Group.

Fater has developed what it claims is the first industrial-scale process that can extract these valuable materials, and it is already up and running in Treviso, Italy. Now, as part of a project called EMBRACED, it is building a biorefinery next door to make best use of these recycled substances.

Technical minds have been trying to recycle nappies since 1992, says Somma, but it has proved to be a ball of trouble.

"When you change a nappy you wrap it onto itself and so basically you have a kind of bomb of four waste types intimately linked with each other," says Somma. "There is plastic waste – polyethylene and polypropylene, paper waste – because there is cellulose, a super-absorbent polymer and the organic fraction – the human contribution."

Fater, which has been trying to recycle disposable nappies for a decade, has found the trickiest stage is at the start: opening it.

Hmm, the baby's first diapers must be especially valuable, containing the black tar they do.


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  • (Score: 2, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Monday October 08 2018, @07:43PM (2 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday October 08 2018, @07:43PM (#746104)

    What exactly is the valuable material in used diaper? Why bother with summary if it ain't saying shit?

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  • (Score: 1) by DECbot on Monday October 08 2018, @08:40PM

    by DECbot (832) on Monday October 08 2018, @08:40PM (#746120) Journal

    I sure hope they're not planning to extract lead, mercury, and other such metals from those diapers. Then again, if your kid likes to eat paint chips and you can't stop him, you might as well get paid for it.

    --
    cats~$ sudo chown -R us /home/base
  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday October 08 2018, @10:53PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday October 08 2018, @10:53PM (#746188)

    There's gold in them there nappies.