Never throw used nappies in the recycling

No matter how passionate you are about recycling, the fact is that disposable nappies are simply not recyclable. When they get put in with recycling, the workers at your local recycling facility have to sort through used nappies to make sure that they don’t contaminate other recyclable materials, such as paper and plastic. This makes their whole system less efficient and more expensive, not to mention more unpleasant for the recyclers.

Flush solid waste down the toilet

Getting rid of the solid waste from your baby’s nappy before disposal will reduce odour and bacteria. Use gloves or a piece of toilet paper to remove the waste and flush it down the toilet and dispose of the nappy in your nappy bin.

Purchase a separate, hands-free bin for nappies

Ideally, you should keep nappy waste separate from other garbage and food waste. Invest in a discreet, washable container with a lid, ideally with a foot pedal that opens the lid so that you don't have to touch the bin with your dirty hands. Be sure to line the bin with a plastic garbage bag so that waste doesn’t touch the sides of the bin.

Once this is full it can be added to your weekly rubbish for collection into the municipal waste stream, and disposal at a landfill.

Just remember that disposable nappies contain plastics which can take up to 500 years to decompose! This means that every disposable nappy that has been sent to landfill  - since their invention in 1961 - is still there, and will be for generations to come. Cloth nappies avoid the problem of contributing to landfill, and use 20 times less raw materials, 2 times less water and 3 times less energy to make. The carbon footprint for cloth nappies is dependent on the washing and drying conditions, but this can be anywhere from 81% -38% lower than disposable nappies.

Creches, pre-schools, or old age homes

If you run a business that is generating more nappy waste than a domestic household - such as a creche, a pre-school, an old age home, or even a shopping mall with baby change stations - you are no longer permitted to dispose of that nappy waste via your municipal rubbish bins.  

Large volumes of nappy waste require careful handling, collection, packaging, temporary storage, transportation and ultimately disposal in order to ensure that both public health and the environment are protected. Initial is a registered waste carrier and can therefore offer a safe and hygienic nappy bin service to ensure that nappy waste is disposed of in accordance with legislative guidelines.

Initial provides modern, high-capacity nappy bins with a concealed liner retainer, ensuring that the bag is not visible from outside the unit, which is collected on a regular basis. Nappy waste is disposed of in accordance with municipal regulations for hazardous waste.

Hospital or healthcare environment

To make things just that little bit more complex, nappies which are generated in a healthcare facility such as a hospital or clinic and which are suspected to contain pathogens - or come from people who have been treated with certain drugs - are not classified as hazardous waste, but rather as healthcare risk waste (as per the National Environmental Management: Waste Act 2008 and SANS 10248).

Healthcare risk waste is handled differently to hazardous waste, and whilst it may be difficult to know whether the nappy waste contains pathogens or contaminants, the legislative guidelines suggest that a precautionary approach should always be applied. If there is a reasonable suspicion of the presence of infection or contamination, the highest precaution should be taken and nappies should be disposed of within the healthcare risk waste stream. You can read more about Healthcare risk waste terminology in our previous blog post, and how it should be disposed of, here.

This means that unlike nappies from old age homes or creche’s, nappies originating from hospitals and medical facilities should be treated as medical waste, and disposed of in a designated medical waste disposal unit, with the regulation red 100-micron liner.