We have all seen it . . . a young toddler stumbling along wearing an enormous sagging diaper that looks like it just soaked up Lake Mead. OK now stop and think about this. There really is a tremendous amount of liquid stored up in that diaper.
They already make and sell granules that you can add to your soil to dramatically increase its water retention abilities. These granules sell for from $12 to $16 per pound or well over $200 for 50 pounds. What few people realize however, is that the exact same polymer that these “crystals” are made out of is that which is used in our common every day disposable diapers! That’s right . . . every year we are filling our landfills with a material that sells in different packaging for over $10 per pound! The synthetic polymer is called (polyacrylamide with a potassium salt base) and is used both as a soil additive and in diapers. This is as big of an outrage as any of those government spending horror stories we are always reading about!
When you consider that diapers comprise by most estimates around 2% of our total landfill waste and in many areas is the number one source of roadside litter . . . and then when you think about how much money must be spent on irrigation as well as how much water runs away during a heavy rain (although it is desparately needed soon afterwards, it becomes obvious that this is indeed a huge social and public issue.
If we start at just the basic level and take advantage of this at home (only using “wet” diapers), there is far less bacteria in a wet diaper than in manure or even your soil for that matter. If you are involved in beautification and have personal access to a steady supply of water retaining polymer . . . well???
I would never recommend purchasing new diapers for this purpose even though they cost much less than the granules, because that would only add to a serious “waste” issue, needlessly. But as far as the “re-using” the polymer from a wet diaper, this is something that anyone could put to use.
Then there are large machines that can handle processing the “soiled diapers.
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