Disposable baby diapers are often used once and then either incinerated or sent to a landfill with no material recovery, even though they contain valuable polyolefin-based nonwovens and films. In response, Belgium-based circular diaper brand Woosh has teamed up with Borouge International and BlueAlp to close the loop on diaper plastics. The trio have demonstrated that plastics from used baby diapers can be recovered and chemically recycled into feedstock for new polymers, the first time this circular loop has been demonstrated at an industrial scale in Europe.
BlueAlp
At chemical recycler BlueAlp, plastic from Woosh baby diapers is converted into a circular feedstock for new polymers.
This builds on Woosh’s closed-loop ecosystem for diapers. The company’s give-back diapers are optimised for recycling and are supplied to childcare facilities and households. They are then collected after use, creating a separate, traceable stream of used diapers for recycling. Borouge International and BlueAlp have worked with Woosh’s engineers to define the recovered plastics quality requirements for input for BlueAlp’s chemical recycling technology. This led Woosh to optimise its proprietary mechanical separation process to produce plastic fractions that meet these requirements.
The first industrial-scale recycling runs happened at BlueAlp’s plant in Oostende, Belgium. The recovered plastic fractions were processed using its pyrolysis technology, converting them into a liquid hydrocarbon known as pyrolysis oil. This pyrolysis oil is ISCC PLUS certified and meets the quality specifications for further processing into new polymers.
“Chemically recycling the plastic from used diapers is anything but straightforward. It requires careful pre-processing to meet the specifications of the pyrolysis process,” said Peter Voortmans, Borealis Vice President Marketing Consumer Products. “Together with Woosh and BlueAlp, we’ve been able to solve this challenge, showing what’s possible when teams work closely together with a shared goal.”
Utilising this model for the hygiene sector
Woosh currently supplies and collects diapers across Belgium, with over 30,000 children using the Woosh give-back diaper system every day. Its diaper recycling plant processes thousands of metric tons of used diapers every year. Looking ahead to the future, operations are set to expand into France and the Netherlands.
“We have spent years building the collection network and the technology to make this possible,” said Jeff Stubbe, CEO of Woosh. “To see the plastic we recover from used diapers validated as feedstock for new polymer production, and potentially for new diapers in the future, is exactly what we set out to achieve. This is what closing the loop actually looks like.”
Valentijn de Neve, CEO of BlueAlp, added, “This is a fundamental example of what we want to achieve at scale with BlueAlp. It’s fantastic to see that, together, we can address difficult-to-recycle waste streams that cannot be effectively managed through mechanical recycling, enabling them to be chemically recycled and returned to demanding applications such as diapers in the healthcare and hygiene sector.”