Studies on the Pulping Conditions of Separating Useful Components from Disposable Diaper Waste

Disposable diaper has been used in order to handle urine and feces conveniently. At present the amount of disposable diaper waste increases gradually. Incineration and landfill have been the only ways to dispose of disposable diapers. However, if they are disposed by landfill, decomposition will take more than one hundred years. In addition, another way of dispose incineration has caused air pollution. Therefore, it is necessary to study recycling process for disposable diaper since plastic and wood fibers of diaper are useful materials to recycle. In this study, pulping condition of disposable diaper waste was studied in order to effectively separate the components. Recovery rates of plastic and fibers were analyzed under different pulping conditions. It was found that optimum pulping consistency was 5%, time was 60 minutes, temperature was 50°C, and cut size is 21 cm×21 cm. The recovery rate of plastic and fibers can be achieved above 70% under the optimum pulping condition.