The Problem: Too Little Recycling Capacity for an Enormous Waste Stream
Around 1 billion diapers are thrown away in the Netherlands every year. The Dutch government wants at least a quarter of them to be recycled by 2032, but the Netherlands currently lacks sufficient recycling capacity to achieve this. Childcare centres and preschools are a significant source of this waste stream because of the large number of children who use multiple diapers every day.
What Is Changing
Woosh’s circular diaper service uses diapers that are designed for recycling. The packaging and materials have been designed to make used diapers easier to separate and process. Plastic recovered from the diapers is converted into new raw material, including for packaging, while the organic components are currently used to generate energy.
Corona Sanders-Koek, Managing Director of Samenwerkende Kinderopvang, says the organisation’s scale provides an opportunity to make a real impact on both the volume of waste and CO₂ emissions. All childcare centres and preschools operating under the Samenwerkende Kinderopvang labels are expected to have made the switch by May 2027.
Plastic Soup Foundation sees the partnership as a concrete example of how the highly polluting diaper chain can become more circular and is calling on other childcare organisations to explore whether they could make a similar transition.
