{"id":583630,"date":"2026-04-03T21:31:09","date_gmt":"2026-04-03T21:31:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/583630\/"},"modified":"2026-04-03T21:31:09","modified_gmt":"2026-04-03T21:31:09","slug":"used-diapers-turned-into-new-ones-thanks-to-super-recycling-japanese-towns-and-new-innovation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/583630\/","title":{"rendered":"Used Diapers Turned into New Ones Thanks to Super-Recycling Japanese Towns and New Innovation"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Japanese diaper brands on a shelf \u2013 credit \u7dad\u57fa\u5c0f\u9738\u738b- CC BY-SA 4.0.<\/p>\n

In the 1990s, a pair of Japanese municipalities estimated that the landfill they shared was going to be full by 2004.<\/p>\n

Unless they did something to start reducing the size of their waste streams, the towns would have to sacrifice more precious land, or truck their waste much farther afield to another site.<\/p>\n

Their response was to ramp up recycling of the clearest categories such as glass, paper, and metals, before moving on to more complicated streams, particularly a very stinky one: dirty diapers.<\/p>\n

\u201cUltimately, our top priority is to reduce our trash and extend the life of the landfill,\u201d Kenichi Matsunaga, an environment official for the city of Shibushi, told the Japan Times<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Billions of diapers\u2014used by the very youngest and the oldest in society, are discarded every year in Japan. Made of layered, super-absorbing fibers and other materials, they aren\u2019t readily recyclable.<\/p>\n

Located in Kagoshima Prefecture, a new recycling initiative for diapers separates and shreds this core material in a way that prepares it for reuse while saving millions of tons of landfill-bound waste.<\/p>\n

Shibushi, and the nearby town of Osaki, recycle 80% of household waste\u2014some four-times the national avergae. Here, the company Unicharm aimed to pioneer its diaper recycling method where locals are already used to sorting their trash.<\/p>\n

Residents\u2019 diapers are collected, but only if their names are written on the bags to ensure accountability. Then, they\u2019re washed and shredded until their component elements of\u00a0 plastic, pulp, and super-absorbent polymer (SAP) are separated.<\/p>\n

TACKLING DIAPERS: Packet of Fungi Inside New Diapers Breaks Them Down in Landfill Turning it to Mycelium<\/a><\/p>\n

Previously, GNN has reported that the company<\/a> has used this material to make toilet paper, but now have advanced their method and machinery enough to reuse the pulp in diaper manufacturing.<\/p>\n

\"\"The recycled diaper toilet paper \u2013 credit: Osaki Municipal Government\u2019s SDGs Promotion Council<\/p>\n

The process uses ozone, a sterilizing gas, to clean and deodorize the pulp to the point that it passes sanitary requirements. The company is currently working on ways to prepare the SAP for reuse, and expects progress by 2028.<\/p>\n

MORE JAPAN NEWS: Japan\u2019s Yogurt Delivery Ladies Serve as a Support Net for Country\u2019s Aging Population<\/a><\/p>\n

The country is probably the only one in the world where more diapers are produced for incontinent elders than for babies. Larger and more robust, they take up more space in landfills.<\/p>\n

Japan wants to aim for 100 cities and towns to be recycling diapers by 2030, \u201cor at least to start talking about it\u201d reports Japan Times.<\/p>\n

SHARE This Great Start To Tackling A Huge Smelly Problem\u2026\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Japanese diaper brands on a shelf \u2013 credit \u7dad\u57fa\u5c0f\u9738\u738b- CC BY-SA 4.0. In the 1990s, a pair of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":583631,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[64,63,96405,75,204115,13677,941,89084,3810,128,77524,4931],"class_list":{"0":"post-583630","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-environment","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-babies","11":"tag-environment","12":"tag-good-earth","13":"tag-hygiene","14":"tag-japan","15":"tag-landfills","16":"tag-recycling","17":"tag-science","18":"tag-trash","19":"tag-waste"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/583630","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=583630"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/583630\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/583631"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=583630"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=583630"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=583630"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}