This article is from page 6 of the 2006-06-13 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 6 JPG
CLARE County Council is not happy for biodegradable nappies to go into compost bins.
Instead Director of Services Ger Dollard said the council was encouraging parents and child minders to use “real” nappies that could be washed and reused.
He was responding to Councillor Brian Meaney, who claimed at yesterday’s council meeting that one baby produced as much as 2.5 tonnes of nappies in 30 months. With an estimated 2,000 babies of that age in Clare, the councillor claimed that as much as 5,000 tonnes of nappies could be entering the county’s landfill, over that period. That is more than 300 truckloads of nappies and would require 4.5 trees to produce. According to Cllr Meaney, it takes 200 to 500 years for a standard nappy to degrade.
Mr Dollard told the councillor that the council checked with Galway City Council, who operated a mixed green and food waste composting facility.
“The advice to the council is that biodegradable nappies are not considered suitable for this process,” he said.
The best biological treatment for biodegradable nappies is vermincomposting, according to the Director of Services. This is the break down of biowaste by earthworms.
“At domestic level, householders can make their own vermincomposters, one of the main requirements for which is a large surface area. The advantage of vermincomposting over conventional home composting is the shorter time needed to produce the finished compost, which is a major consideration when used nappies are being added very frequently. The company’s nappies contain some plastics, but these are also claimed to be biodegradable,” he added.
Biodegradable nappies, apart from any plastic parts, constitute biological waste, which the EU landfill directive requires to be diverted as much as possible form landfill. Currently, there are no central vermincomposting facilities in the Clare- Limerick-Kerry waste management region.
“When further biological treatment facilities are being considered for this region, this waste stream will have to be included in the consideration,” said Mr Dollard.