From deveils to little eco angels? Maybe...

This morning I didn’t work out – I plonked the Mink Baby in the gym’s creche for an hour and chilled out, reading the paper, sipping a coffee and this artcile in The Times caught my eye – perhaps convenient disposable nappies will become an eco-friendly option after all?

Relief for parents’ disposable nappy guilt

by Lewis Smith

A scheme to recycle thousands of tonnes of used disposable nappies into everything from tiles to bicycle helmets and, eventually, to extract methane from them to generate energy is about to start.

The first of five plants designed to reclaim the plastic and fibres used to make nappies and incontinence pads will open in Birmingham, with four others planned by 2014 for cities such as Manchester, Liverpool and London.

The £12 million Birmingham plant will be able to process 36,000 tonnes a year, with plastic recovered from the nappies and pads used initially to make roof tiles. Other items, including cycling helmets, shoe insoles and cladding, could be made later.

In a second phase, which executives at Knowaste, the Canadian company that will operate the plant, hope to have running by the end of 2011, methane will be extracted from the used nappies and sold to the national gas grid…”

To read the entire article go here.

What do you think?

Can the (quite rightly) demonised but convenient disposbale nappy undergo a reform and become a useful member of society?