Huggies^® brand sponsors NZ’s first commercial nappy composter

14 August 2009

The Envirocomp Solution nappy composter sponsored by Huggies^® Nappies was officially opened last Friday the NZ Minister for Environment, the Honourable Dr Nick Smith, in front of 100 guests from government, business, the College of Midwives, the Royal NZ Plunket Society, and the local community.

Hon Dr Nick Smith, NZ Minister for Environment

The Minister congratulated owners Karen and Karl Upston and the Huggies^® team on establishing the first commercial nappy composting facility in New Zealand. He said, “New Zealand prides itself on two things: firstly that we are ‘clean and green’ and secondly that we are practical people with ‘kiwi ingenuity’. This project brings both together. I hope this is one of these ideas which won’t just be successful in New Zealand but can be taken overseas”.

Grant Hartley, Head of Marketing for Kimberly-Clark, said that they were delighted to be part of this revolutionary initiative. According to Grant, “This is home grown technology commercialised by local businesses to develop the first commercial plant to compost nappies and other sanitary products. Internationally there have been trials to recycle nappies and compost some of the component parts but this is the first time that we have seen a realistic full scale alternative to putting nappies into landfill.”

Karen Upston says that the project could not have happened without the support of the Huggies^® brand, “To have global nappy manufacturer Huggies^® come to the party with commercial sponsorship early on was a major step forward.”

The facility in North Canterbury in New Zealand’s South Island will initially process 15,000 nappies a day mixed with green waste supplied by the local councils. As demand increases, additional HotRot compost units will be installed.

The KCNZ team inspect the new composter.

Nappies are processed with green waste through an enclosed composting unit. Nappies and green waste enter one end and move down the vessel and over a period of two to three weeks the waste decomposes to produce compost.

Controlled temperatures eliminate pathogens and the compost is screened to remove materials such as the plastic from the nappies. The compost is suitable for commercial gardening or landscaping.

The new subscription service costs around NZ$5.30 per week. Nappies and incontinence products are collected from households and businesses across the region. Councils have signalled their support for the service by offering financial incentives to subscribers.