We were so impressed to hear Redwood Meadows is the first community in Alberta to introduce diaper recycling to its regular waste-management program. Soiled Diapers Composting Services does provide private services to other municipalities, but Redwood Meadows has take the step to include the cost of the service in its monthly waste and recycling program fees. Based on data from Statistics Canada, according to Soiled Diapers' website, there were 1.9 million diaper-aged children in the country, in 2016. That equates to 2.4 million diapers entering Canadian landfills per year, amounting to more than 3.7 billion tons of waste. Furthermore, the website suggests, that number increases annually by about two per cent. That’s a lot of waste (pardon the pun). The output of waste material headed to the landfill after the diapers are recycled is a mere one per cent – that is very impressive and impactful. What’s really astounding is the diapers don’t need to be compostable. Swim diapers, disposable diapers, adult diapers and Pull-Ups Training Pants can all be broken down and recycled. As many parents know, the idea of eco-friendly cloth diapers is great, but the practicality and effort involved can quash all well-intentioned plans. The ability to recycle disposable diapers leaves no more excuses for adding tons of waste to the landfill. We are so very pleased to see a local municipality take a step towards saving our planet by incorporating diaper recycling into waste fees, and hope to see more do so.
