From disposable nappy to new pamper: Ghent shows the world a better way
Did you know that, on average, a baby is only potty-trained after 4,800 nappies? Just think about that mountain of waste for a moment. A Ghent-based company has achieved a world first with its recycled pampers, and despite all the baby poo, it has big plans.
Three young fathers with a conscience had a feeling that something was amiss. They could no longer live with all the waste nappies that babies produce on a daily basis, needlessly contributing to environmental degradation. So they enthusiastically went looking for circularity in the world of nappies. The result, in 2021, was Woosh, a local company that makes quality, sustainable, snug-fitting and nice-looking disposable nappies. It now supplies over 1,300 crèches and daycare centres in Belgium, conveniently collecting the pampers after use, and recycling them in an environmentally friendly manner at a waste processor in Bruges. In the process, plastics are separated and reused, for example for new nappies. Woosh sees the residual baby soiling as being raw material for a biogas plant, for example. But that's for the future.
Meanwhile, baby bottoms, customers and the planet are already won over by this first so-called 'give-back nappy'.