Possibilities of composting disposable diapers with municipal solid wastes

The possibilities for the management of disposable diapers in municipal solid waste have been studied. An in-depth revision of literature about generation, composition and current treatment options for disposable diapers showed that the situation for these wastes is not clearly defined in developed...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores: Colón Jordà, Joan|||0000-0003-1677-7239, Ruggieri, Luz, Sánchez, Antoni|||0000-0003-4254-8528, González Puig, Aina, Puig Ventosa, Ignasi|||0000-0002-8097-5283
Tipo de recurso: artículo
Fecha de publicación:2011
País:España
Institución:Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona
Repositorio:Dipòsit Digital de Documents de la UAB
Idioma:inglés
OAI Identifier:oai:ddd.uab.cat:163719
Acceso en línea:https://ddd.uab.cat/record/163719
https://dx.doi.org/urn:doi:10.1177/0734242X10364684
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palabra clave:Composting
Diapers
Environmental impact
Municipal solid wastes
Waste collection
Descripción
Sumario:The possibilities for the management of disposable diapers in municipal solid waste have been studied. An in-depth revision of literature about generation, composition and current treatment options for disposable diapers showed that the situation for these wastes is not clearly defined in developed recycling societies. As a promising technology, composting of diapers with source-separated organic fraction of municipal solid waste (OFMSW) was studied at full scale to understand the process performance and the characteristics of the compost obtained when compared with that of composting OFMSW without diapers. The experiments demonstrated that the composting process presented similar trends in terms of evolution of routine parameters (temperature, oxygen content, moisture and organic matter content) and biological activity (measured as respiration index). In relation to the quality of both composts, it can be concluded that both materials were identical in terms of stability, maturity and phytotoxicity and showed no presence of pathogenic micro-organisms. However, compost coming from OFMSW with a 3% of disposable diapers presented a slightly higher level of zinc, which can prevent the use of large amounts of diapers mixed with OFMSW.