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Diapers Can Go Green

To some organisms in nature, even a diaper waste can be raw materials for human food.

APPARENTLY there are two current problems that used diapers can help solve: reduction of urban solid waste and availability of high protein food sources. Or so it seems, as what four Mexican researchers from the Universidad Autonoma Metropolitana found out.

But used diapers cannot do it all alone. They need a fungus commonly known as oyster mushroom (Pleurotus ostreatus) to perform biodegradation on the disposable diaper materials such as polyethylene, polypropylene and a superabsorbent polymer. Its main component, however, is cellulose, a plant structural material that degrades slowly.

Polyethylene is the most widely used plastic today. It is primarily used in packaging materials such as plastic bag. While polypropylene is the more heat-stable kind. It is used in plastic parts and automotive components. 

It only takes... [Read more.]

 
This article appears in SunStar Cebu newspaper on 25 May 2011.

RELATED UPDATES

13 July 2011. The University of San Carlos Department of Chemical Engineering signed a memorandum of agreement with the FDRCon Co., operator of Cebu's first integrated resource recovery facility (located in Pangdan Village, Naga), to work together in developing a treatment facility for diaper and napkins. [Read more.]
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