Nappy Recycling

Kimberly-Clark Australia and our Huggies brand have successfully demonstrated that anaerobic digestion could be Australia’s answer to the 1.5 billion disposable nappies that end up in Australian landfills each year. With approximately 300,000 babies born in Australia every year, and about 95% of them wearing disposable nappies, this is critical progress for the industry.

This finding comes from a world-first trial in South Australia, "The Nappy Loop", which began in July 2022 and used anaerobic digestion to turn the organic materials in used Huggies nappies into nutrient-rich compost, as well as bioenergy that can be captured and used to power the recycling process.

The Nappy Loop trial saw nappies collected from a childcare centre in Adelaide, G8 Education’s Welly Road Early Learning Centre in Mount Barker, which were then processed at Peats composting facility - the largest in SA. Utilising anaerobic digestion, the organic material in the used nappies is transformed into nutrient-rich compost whilst the plastic components are separated and evaluated for future recycled products. In addition, the anaerobic digestion process creates bioenergy which is captured and used to power the Peats composting facility. The team has been working hard on solutions for the plastic components as well as exploring what it would take to scale the program.

Check out the video to find out more about The Nappy Loop.