A nappy composting system will soon be available in Canterbury, but for green-minded Dunedin parents the wait for a similar option may be a long one.
Kimberly-Clark NZ Ltd, manufacturer of Huggies nappies, has collaborated with Envirocomp Ltd to compost nappies, sanitary pads and incontinence products.
The system would use a HotRot composter which was developed in Christchurch and hoped to divert 3650 tonnes of waste from landfill a year.
During the composting process, items would be combined with green waste and heated to high temperatures.
The Dunedin City Council, however, had no immediate plans to introduce a similar system, waste strategy officer Catherine Broad said.
She was waiting for recent rubbish surveys to be collated to get a feel for what the public wanted in terms of waste disposal options, but the council did not have the infrastructure for a nappy composting system at present.
She also expressed concern about the presence of human excrement in the end product, but would be watching with interest the system in Canterbury.
According to the Ministry for the Environment, nappies make up 2% of the nation's landfill waste, which equates to 166 tonnes per day.
A report by the UK Environment Agency said reusable nappies can be more environmentally friendly than disposable ones, but it depended on how the consumer used them.
It suggested the global warming impact could be lowered by as much as 40%.
Two New Zealand studies were also carried out recently.
Victoria University students found the carbon footprint of nappies washed at home was 46% lower than disposable nappies (2300m2 of land compared to 4300m2).
On the other hand, Massey University students were more concerned about the impact disposable nappies had on consumer's wallets and found families could save $20 to $30 a week with reusable nappies.
