Nappies and landfill

Nappies make up around 1% of urban landfill waste.

Nappies are about 3% by weight of all domestic wastes landfilled, and domestic wastes are only about 34% of all urban solid wastes going to landfill. (By comparison, food and garden waste accounts for over 58% of our total domestic waste.) 1

Pie chart indicating the percentage composition of urban waste.Source: Waste Avoidance and Resource Recovery in NSW – A Progress Report, NSW DEC Aug 2004

Landfill is a high profile issue, and a concern to many Australians. People are worried about our society’s rates of waste disposal.

However, you may be interested to know that less than 1% of all Australia’s solid wastes actually goes to landfill. The other 99% include wastes from mining, farming and forestry, which are managed in other ways.

Proportion of landfilled wastes in Australia

A comprehensive study of all wastes generated in Australia found that landfilled wastes were only 1% of all solid wastes produced.

Since this study in 1990-91, mining wastes have increased substantially, bringing landfilled wastes to less than 1%.

Production of wastes in the various sectors of the Australian economy in 1990-912 [*some sectors aggregated]

Waste type (or sector)

Solid Wastes

Mt/y

Liquid Wastes

Mt/y

Gaseous Wastes

Mt/y

TOTAL

Mt/y
Total Australia 2116 1995 496 4607
Mining 1662 92 10 1764
Farming & Forestry* 392 n/a 170 572
Electricity, gas, water 8 n/a 131 139
Chemicals, metals, manufacturing* 30 342 70 452
Transport 2 66 73 141
Municipal, commercial & building* [solid segment = ‘landfill waste’] 22
(1% of total)		 1495 22 1539
  • Mt/y = million tonne/year
  • n/a = not available

A comprehensive study of all wastes generated in Australia found that landfilled wastes were only 1% of all solid wastes produced.

Since this study in 1990-91, mining wastes have increased substantially, bringing landfilled wastes to less than 1%.

This means nappy wastes are only 1 part in 10,000 of all our solid wastes!

Bulk reduction

Kimberly-Clark recognises its customers’ concerns about landfill, and is committed to finding ways to reduce the impact of our products on the environment and landfill.

  • Over the past 10 years, we have reduced the bulk of our nappies by over half, substantially reducing their landfill impact.
  • We continue to research ways to reduce bulk, and minimise our impact.
  • We have reduced the amount of manufacturing waste which goes to landfill by over 96%.
  1. NSW Department of Environment and Conservation, August 2004, Waste Avoidance and Resource Recovery in NSW
  2. O’Connor MA, Evans DG, Hurse TJ, 1995, Waste flows in the Australian Economy, Department of Chemical Engineering, University of Melbourne.