Concrete Made with Shredded Diapers Is Just as Strong and Saves Landfill Space

In an attempt to solve two environmental problems at once, researchers at the University of Kitakyushu in Japan have found that shredded nappies can be used to replace between 9 and 40% of the sand used in making concrete without reducing its strength. Disposable nappies are a growing source of non-recyclable waste, and cement production is responsible for almost 7% of global greenhouse-gas emissions and consumes around 50 billion tonnes of sand each year.

“It’s all about the resource availability,” says Zuraida. “With the growth of the population, the diaper waste will also grow. It’s challenging, so we thought that this would be a part of our contribution to recycling this waste.” After a month of curing, the samples were pressure-tested to determine the breaking point of the composite material. From these measurements, Zuraida and her colleagues calculated the maximum proportion of nappy waste that could match the needs of building components.

The house that nappies built The researchers then used their nappy-infused concrete to construct their experimental house to Indonesian building standards. The house was small; the floor plan totalled just 36 square metres, the size of about 2.5 car-parking spaces. To speed up the building process, the researchers used the nappy concrete for the architectural components and metal beams for the structural components.

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