Can you compost nappies

But given the fact that successful composting is about creating the right balance of carbon to nitrogen, and given the fact that dirty disposable diapers are essentially a large bundle of carbon paper product , containing a much smaller deposit of nitrogen poop and pee , I wondered if anyone has created a "baby composting toilet"—essentially a separate compost pile for the disposal of disposables.

Municipal Diaper Composting Granted, this is probably an unlikely scenario. But it does seem like there could be a community-scale effort to at least keep dirty diapers out of landfill.

A quick Google search brings me to a New York Times article about Toronto's program to compost diapers, animal waste, kitty litter and sanitary products :. Safety Remains a Concern Of course questions remain about safety and sustainability.

The high temperatures achieved in municipal composting almost certainly mean that fecal matter is rendered safe a home-scale composting effort would do well to read up on general humanure guidelines , but what about bleaches and other chemicals in the products themselves? Either way, this seems like one step in the right direction—and given that disposables are likely to be around for some time to come I'm not just talking about their inability to decompose in landfill , it seems sensible to figure out what to do with them.

In the meantime, I need to figure out this potty training thing. Actively scan device characteristics for identification. Use precise geolocation data. Select personalised content. Create a personalised content profile. Measure ad performance. Select basic ads.

Create a personalised ads profile. Select personalised ads. Apply market research to generate audience insights. Some of these polymers are biodegradable, and some are not. Typically, they are considered very safe. It turns out that the biodegradable material in the nappies only biodegrades if the nappies are composted — in a particular way. So landfills are designed to minimise this effect. The reality is: it could take several lifetimes for the biodegradable bits of a nappy to actually decompose on their own, or in a landfill site.

In fact, according to our sister site Science Focus , synthetic biodegradable materials actually take hundreds of years to fully decompose. Plastics, generally, take 3 to 6 months. They did, however, add that they were looking into possible landfill alternatives — and were talking to one UK council about offering a hot composting service.

Beaming Baby claims their nappies take 4 years to biodegrade. Composting is the process of making an organic matter into a soil conditioner, decomposing natural fabrics or waste and turning in to something else, something usable.

It seems composting is the only way to ensure any of your disposable nappy actually biodegrades. Unfortunately, none of these options are actually very do-able here in the UK. Firstly, doing it at home is not recommended for several reasons:. RecycleNow also says NOT to put disposable nappies of any sort in your brown compost bin.

As for letting the pros do it, there is, at present, no industrial facility you can drive to in the UK or one that offers a pick-up service — as far as we can tell. There was a company in Wales that was trying to start it but they went out of business. Thanks Catherine. Hi Catherine. Thanks for getting in touch. Unfortunately I don't know anything about them but I would think that with all the brands we sell, there are too many components that aren't compostable. I'll look into it more too.

All the best for now, Siobhan. Go Top. Human waste contains bacteria that can contaminate water and harm the surrounding environment, including people. Biodegradable isn't the same as compostable - biodegradable can take years to actually break down and it has to be in the right environment.

No disposable nappy is fully biodegradable or compostable.