They are one of the most complex products to recycle, but if successful, the one with the biggest stream of value: nappies. Last year, students from the Honours Academy were commissioned by waste and energy plant ARN to study a next step towards circularity of nappies and incontinence materials. On Wednesday 15 November, they presented their findings at the symposium ‘The Circular Diaper - The Next Step’. Dutch nappy producers, collectors, recyclers and raw material producers gathered and together, led by associate professor Sjors Witjes, expressed their willingness to move towards an accelerated circular nappy.
According to the government, agreements should be in place by 2026 to make the entire production chain of nappies and incontinence materials circular through a process of extended producer responsibility (UPV). However, the Dutch nappy industry feels that the process to achieve UPV is taking too long. At the symposium, they therefore joined forces to come up with a proposal to take action and responsibility faster.
Witjes: "I am proud that from our Nijmegen campus, together with all these important partners, we have been able to initiate this transition. The UPV is an important tool to meet the 2030 and 2050 statutory climate targets, and an opportunity for the sector to stay in control of this."
The cooperation in the Dutch nappy sector is seen as a basis for a European project which the Ministry of Infrastructure and Waterways I&W is setting up. In the Netherlands, some 400 kilotonnes per year, or about 65,000 full bin bags of nappies and incontinence materials, end up in the residual waste. The Nijmegen region is currently the only region to have a combined waste and energy plant that recycles nappies.
