South Australia will lead the nation in a new recycling program that will work to divert baby nappies from landfill.
Nappy wastage is a national problem, with 1.5 billion discarded in landfill in Australia each year and the product taking an estimated 150 years to break down.
A Mount Barker childcare centre in the Adelaide Hills has donated its waste to the trial.
Dirty nappies are collected by waste management company Solo Resource and transported to a Peats Soil plant at Langhorne Creek.
The plastic components are separated and the organic material extracted for anaerobic digestion to create a rich compost.
The project is in conjunction with nappy manufacturer Kimberly-Clark, the CSIRO, and the South Australian government.
While the trial has only been underway for five months, it has processed nearly 2 tonnes of nappies thus far and environment toxicologist Anu Kumar said the results have been a success.
"The anaerobic digestion process is really a great way to recycle nappies," Dr Kumar said.
"It will be like any other compost. So far, we haven't found any plastic fragments.
"We are making sure the sludge that comes out [is] good quality and meets Australian standards."
Kimberly-Clark's managing director Belinda Driscoll said the idea was sparked by a similar model rolled out in Canada.
"It collects its products from households," she said.
"It's a reflection of a model that exists in Toronto, and it uses the same process."
Nappies just a 'starting point'
It is not yet known what the plastic or compost will be used for, but the SA government has put $50,000 into a feasibility study.
"To finally be able to crack the question of nappies will be something lots of families will be grateful for," Deputy Premier Susan Close said.
"The councils in South Australia are incredible at being able to support recycling.
"We are starting to see councils move to a weekly pick-up of food and organic waste.
"And we will be able to have a separate way to collect the nappies … but let's test it first."
Experts hope it could further roll out to adult incontinence products and period pads in the longer term.
"It would be fantastic to do this for other products but the time being we have just used nappies as a starting point," Dr Kumar said.
Adelaide mother Katie White tried to be environmentally conscious by using cloth nappies on her first child.
Since having her second baby, Poppy, she has started using compostable nappies in addition to cloth.
"I think with two children it was going to be too much," Ms White said.
"We are only using about four to five disposable nappies a day, and knowing the compostable ones are compostable, we don't feel too bad about it."
She said it was hard for some families to keep up with using cloth nappies.
"It's not realistic for everyone, if you're out and about they only last two or three hours before you have to change, you get a lot of leaks with them," she said.
Ms White said it would benefit parents to have the option of recycling, but said it would need to be cost-effective.
"It would depend on how affordable it is because right now the compostable nappies are more expensive, sometimes even 50 per cent more expensive than the non-compostable ones," she said.
