Each year, 167 billion disposable nappies are made, used and thrown away. Such is their impact, that in countries such as Vanuatu, disposable nappies make up 30% all of their waste. Rather than letting them accumulate in landfill and our oceans, what if a soiled nappy could be fully compostable? What if the poo could become a source of fuel? What if nappies could become a source of income, rather than a household expense? Eco-nappy entrepreneurs Jason and Kim Graham-Nye are working to make that a reality.
Jason and Kim began researching the potential of more environmentally friendly nappies in 2002, when they fell pregnant with their first child. “We were shocked to discover that there is a cup of crude oil in every nappy… that’s 250 million barrels of crude oil that may be used every year, just to make nappies,” says Jason.
They were delighted to find Eenee nappies – a 100% compostable nappy secured by a belt or tight pant made of washable fabric, created by Tasmania-based inventor, Sue Allison-Rogers. The Graham-Nyes loved the product so much, they worked with her to secure the rights to the patent for markets outside Australia, and in 2005 launched gDiapers in the United States with Jason as the CEO and Kim as the President.
Instrumental in the development of gDiapers was the 2002 book, Cradle to Cradle: Remaking the Way We Make Things, by American architect William McDonough and German chemist Michael Braungart. Jason says it made them realise that they needed to completely rethink product creation.
“We had been thinking about gDiapers as a classic consumer product: we create it, you consume it,” he says. “Cradle to Cradle talked about making products that were regenerative. Making a product, that after it’s used, could have a second, upcycled life. A life that was just as valuable in its second or third time as its first, which is an important distinction. Product regeneration – not recycling – is basis of the circular economy.”
The Graham-Nyes approached McDonough to see if he would assess their product’s performance in the context of a circular economy. In 2007, gDiapers became the first consumer product in the world to have a ‘Cradle to cradle’ certification. “For us, this certification was the just the first step.” he says.
gDiapers was a huge success, selling into large retailers in the US, such as Whole Food Markets and Target. Celebrities such as Julia Roberts spoke publicly about using them for her own children.
Dirty business
gDiapers can’t move into their second or third life if they end up in landfill, but many of them were, despite the fact that they are 100% compostable. What was stopping them from being regenerated?
Poo.
While wet nappy inserts can be put into your home compost, you can’t compost poo in your backyard. According to Graham-Nye, in most developed countries, it is prohibited to compost human waste, so, those nappies end up in landfill.
“If it ends up in landfill, it doesn’t biodegrade; if it ends up in landfill, it doesn’t compost, even if you’re using biodegradable, or compostable materials,” says Graham-Nye. “This is one of the great myths, that when you are shopping ethically and you buy that compostable bag, as soon as it hits landfill, it’s airless, lightless. It’s designed not to biodegrade and that’s crucial.”
The only way to compost human excrement is to do it commercially. “We have this perverse problem with composting human waste,” says Graham-Nye. “The science is very simple. You compost anything with a pathogen: once you get above 60 degrees Celsius, the pathogens go. So, one of the barriers in our particular category in the circular economy is working to get exemptions for those sorts of things.”
Graham-Nye points to Allison-Rogers’ most recent work on nappy production in Tasmania. In Hobart, Allison-Rogers sells the nappies to childcare centres. Veolia, a local waste collection company, picks up the used nappies, along with the centres’ food and garden waste, and the City of Hobart council produces compost using those materials and sells the composted waste wholesale.
“They are literally monetising waste, which is the gold standard. It’s brilliant,” says Graham-Nye. “What’s really great about that example is it’s a multiplayer game. Allison-Rogers has done incredible work.”
According to Graham-Nye other councils around Australia are looking to do this, as well.
“This is a real revolution,” he says. “It’s more complicated than just selling to Woolworths. It takes time, and co-operation between companies does not come naturally.”
Reject recycling
The Graham-Nyes are now working on taking this approach beyond Australia.
“We want to deliver, collect, compost and sell the compost made from our newest nappy design innovation,” he says. “In doing so, we eliminate plastic nappy waste from the oceans, generate valuable compost to support local farmers and create employment. We employ community members in each element of our circular solution, which we call the gCycle.”
Where do they want to start? Indonesia. Every minute around the world, 380,000 disposable nappies enter landfill or the oceans, making nappies of the largest contributors to marine plastic waste. “Indonesia is the second largest marine polluter in the world and nappies account for 27% of their marine pollution, it’s logical place for us to work,” says Graham-Nye.
After an initial trial with 10 families, the gCycle team is now planning to work with 130 families in one Indonesian village for a year and are seeking funding to support this work.
“This project will remove 200,000 nappies from the ocean, which is around 45 tonnes of waste. Instead of this waste, we will create 23 tonnes of nutrient-rich compost and 7 tonnes of CO2 will be sequestered from the soil organic matter. That’s from just 130 babies in a country of 12 million babies. That’s impact,” says Graham-Nye.
He says that world needs to reject recycling as we understand it and move to a circular economy, where organisations take responsibility for the entire lifecycle of their product, in the same way he is doing with gCycle.
“In the EU, there are laws coming down the pipe that say if you make feminine hygiene [products], or wipes, for example, you need to do something about that as a manufacturer. You need to take them back and clean up your own environmental impact,” he says.
He also points to the recent ban by China on the importation of all recyclables, saying that there’s no market for many of the things we recycle.
“At the end of the day, recycling is just green-washing, we need to remove plastic from all production,” he says.
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Article by Kylie Ahern
Photo Credit: Photo supplied
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