The diaper dilemma
What connects disposable nappies to water hyacinths? It’s neither a Bollywood classic nor love at first sight; we are talking about an arranged marriage between disposable diapers and water hyacinths.
Being such different candidates, readers will wonder, how can such a marriage work? What are the commonalities and motives?
We don’t need to dig deep: Both took long historic journeys from their birthplaces on the North and the South American continents to reach Lake Vellayani, where right now, a concept transformation is taking place.
What more do they have in common? Both spread like wildfire on water and land causing devastating environmental problems.
But hold on… having a closer look at each of them, despite all the negative aspects, both serve a number of hygienic needs. The water hyacinth filters fresh water with its fibrous roots and the disposable diaper provides a clean baby bottom.
Another interesting parallel is the massive rate of growth; both rapidly invade new territory.
The water hyacinth is indeed a growth giant. In humid and hot temperatures and with enough nutrients in the water, it doubles it’s mass in just two weeks. Globally, it is one of the fastest growing plants. It is not only found in the tropics; it is also spreading steadily in Europe and North America.
The disposable diaper can certainly compete with the water hyacinth in its massive spread. While the global value of disposable diapers in 2015, was approximately 52 billion U.S. dollars, for 2023 its value is estimated to be 90.2 Billion U.S. dollars. 1
Diaper manufacturers are also confidently pushing themselves into countries in Asia, which have been a stranger to the concept of a diaper and traditionally offer a much more environmentally friendly solution. As we witnessed all over China and especially in Tibet, the toddlers wear practical shorts with a slit in the back, which open widely when squatting. And although this solution is exemplary, corporations seem to be able to position the disposable nappy as “indispensable for the child’s intellectual development.” 2
Diapers as well as hyacinths are pressuring the environment from two sides. While the mountains of wasted disposable diapers worldwide are constantly growing, the water hyacinths are pushing forward inexorably. Over long stretches on rivers and lakes, they form huge mats that block the sunlight, which suffocates other aquatic plants and fish. They clog canals and harbour basins, and at the end of its lifecycle, the plants sink to the bottom where they form a thick mud-like subsoil.
So while the water hyacinth is responsible for the mess under water, the disposable diaper causes chaos on land.
Let’s have a closer look: An average baby needs four- to six-thousand nappies until it is potty trained.
To the corporations’ satisfaction, the time of diaper-wearing increases considerably with the use of disposable diapers. The super-absorbent jellies provide an ‘all-round dry experience’ which doesn’t give the toddler any reason to emancipate itself from being ‘pampered’.
Using disposable diapers, a single child produces up to 700 kilograms of non-recyclable waste, which takes 200 to 500 years for biological decomposition.
let’s face it: thanks to the throwaway and super hygiene culture imposed by the corporate’s, the legacy we leave for future generations literally looks pretty “shitty”.
I only became aware and conscious of the diaper madness when I met my newborn niece, Mira, for the first time. Initially, I was amazed how quickly such a change of diapers worked. until I understood that there isn’t any ‘swaddling process’ needed anymore. Like a pair of shorts, diaper off, trash it, put on a new one and in no time, the baby is dry and smells fresh again.
And what happens to the trash? It is estimated that diapers form up to 3% of everyday waste. As per the Arte documentary film “Wickeln, Windeln, Wegwerfen” documents, In the UK, annually three billion diapers are disposed. This equals a volume of EIGHT Wembley stadiums filled with diapers to the brim!
So far, recycling is out of the question. These diapers contain too many chemicals and different materials, that are glued together and cannot be separated from each other properly.
On the kanthari campus we are familiar with composting as well as the production of bio-gas.
Looking at the contents of a full nappy, i.e. on the probiotic baby feces and nutritious urine, organic farmers would do somersaults.
So why not develop a diaper that still has high value once it becomes ‘waste’? Why not making disposable diapers from biodegradable ‘waste’ materials?
And here, you might have seen it coming, the water hyacinth comes into play.
Since the disastrous floods of 2018 here in Kerala, the water hyacinths have invaded our lake and with the fast growth rate, they are now available in abundance.
My first encounter with the water hyacinths was rather scary. Together with Neerthadakam, a local group of environmental activists, we tried to free the water from the invasion. At that time, we didn’t have much experience and Paul hadn’t developed any of the tools we use today to catch the hyacinths and transport them to land. Therefore, back then we tried to push the mass of plants only using manual labor, by mere physical force to the nearby banks of the lake. At some point, I found myself right in the middle of it. That’s the first time I had an impression of what it means to be claustrophobic. I could hardly hear the others, because everywhere the asparagus-like stems rattled and crunched so loudly that outside noises could not reach me.
Initially, we declared the water hyacinth an enemy, until we gave it a closer look.
The thick leaves and the white with purple flowers are pretty and grow high up on stems that rise up to a metre out of the water and when they swing back and forth in the afternoon breeze, it seems as if they are gently waving.
The leaves are particularly nutritious and therefore well suited as food for free-range chickens.
The fleshy stalks can be dried in the sun, cut open and split into thin fibers. Local women from the surrounding village use these fibers to weave soft leather-like baskets and mats. But we were particularly interested in the dark colored fluffy roots that are hanging under water.
While harvesting the hyacinths, I was touching the roots and I was surprised about the softness and the wool-like structure.
Once lifting the plants out of the water, we noticed that the roots are capable of holding large amounts of liquid, similar to sponges. It was this absorbent power that gave the impulse to get the biodegradable diaper project started.
Together with Chacko, we experimented with the wool. We tried several approaches: plucking, washing and drying inside, sun-dried, fluffed up etc. And every time the absorbance rate was tested. The result: Six gram plucked, sun dried and fluffed hyacinth wool can soak up to 40 ml of water. 20 grams of wool, which we would need to create the diaper, can comfortably absorb up to 80 ml of liquid.
A few weeks ago, Riya Orison joined the diaper team. She was an intern during the early stages of the lockdown, and she was, just like us, obsessed with lake cleaning. As a project manager, she now turned our hobby into a mission and started a field study.
In a marked and confined area of the lake, we are now investigating the growth-rate of the super plant.
And based on all the findings till date, we were able to make the first diaper prototypes.
The diaper contains an inlay-pad that mainly consists of the hyacinth root-wool.
This pad is clamped onto a diaper holder, which is woven from dried hyacinth stalks.
The objectives of these new Hyacinth disposable diapers are clearly defined:
- No power to any corporations that produce disposable diapers without consideration of the environment.
- No copyright, but a right to copy.
- The production process needs to be simple. It should be possible to make the inlay-pad within minutes.
- It must be skin-friendly and completely biodegradable.
- And it must cost virtually nothing except for the multi-use, biodegradable diaper holder.
All of this is feasible, especially if the local population is involved. There are already some women in the surrounding villages who are, under the mentorship of Riya, busy working on better and more comfortable diaper holder models.
As soon as the insert is safely stored in the diaper holder and the baby is satisfied, the arranged wedding is complete, and we can move on to address further environmental issues.
1 <http://www.simavita.com/irm/content/global-diaper-industry.aspx?RID=488>
2 Documentary Arte: http://vimeo.com/36309434