With the population increasingly aging, the production of adult diapers has reached a record high, leading to an increase in waste. According to sources, the Environment Ministry plans to create guidelines to encourage municipalities to recycle used adult diapers from next fiscal year, hoping to reduce waste by making effective use of used diapers.
With reference to the examples of progressive municipalities working on the recycling of adult diapers, the envisaged guidelines likely will include processing of and collection methods for used diapers, among other issues.
At present, there are technologies such as one to make solid fuel from used diapers and one to recover pulp from them for use as construction material.
The ministry will compile the guidelines by holding a study group of representatives from diaper makers, companies with recycling technologies, municipalities and other institutions.
The Japanese Paper Diaper Recycling Promotion Association of manufacturers and others, and related institutions estimate that the amount of waste increased from about 840,000 tons in 2007 to about 1.45 million tons in 2017.
Most diaper waste is disposed of by municipalities as general waste. According to the ministry, used diapers account for 20 to 30 percent of such waste in depopulated areas where the population is rapidly aging.
Hard to handle
Many municipalities face difficulty disposing of used adult diapers against the background of the increasing number of elderly people in need of nursing care. While the Environment Ministry plans to encourage municipalities to recycle them, the hurdles posed by the “new waste issue” are unlikely to be low.
At special elderly nursing home Gajuen in Shibushi, Kagoshima Prefecture, diapers make up 90 percent of the waste produced. The nursing care levels, indicating the amount of care needed, have increased each year, and the number of residents using diapers has also increased.
“We are trying to avoid using diapers as much as possible, but the amount of waste continues to increase,” said a 34-year-old certified care worker at the facility.
According to analysis by Tokyo-based Sompo Care Inc., which operates fee-based homes for the elderly across the country, the weight of waste produced by a person aged 65 and older is about 43 kilograms a month.
A look at the average of people with nursing care level 3 reveals that diapers account for about 50 percent of their waste. For some people with higher nursing care levels, diapers account for 80 to 90 percent of their waste.
Generally speaking, when one needs more diapers, one is less active and eats less. As a result, the amount of waste other than diapers decreases.
In 2015, there were about 4.5 million elderly people in need of nursing care. The number of such elderly people is expected to increase to about 6.7 million by 2030. According to estimates by the ministry, the percentage of diapers in general waste will increase from 5 percent in fiscal 2015 to 8 percent by fiscal 2030.
“I’m afraid if we can’t dispose of diapers in many parts of the country in the near future,” said an official at a large nursing care facility.
Burning burden
Municipalities dispose of waste produced by households and facilities, so can no longer ignore diaper waste.
Compared to diapers for small children, adult diapers are bigger in size. In addition, used diapers are hard to burn because they contain much moisture. In Saitama Prefecture, the Fujimino municipal government does not allow hospitals and nursing care facilities to bring waste diapers to disposal facilities, citing that it becomes difficult to burn waste when a large amount of used diapers are brought in at one time. Facilities and others reportedly commission the disposal of used diapers to private companies, which bring the waste out of their districts.
On the other hand, the Takahashi municipal government in Okayama Prefecture has expressed concerns: “The revenue of the municipality is decreasing due to the declining population. So, if we fail to reduce the amount of diaper waste, we will not be able to build smaller incinerators when rebuilding existing ones. This will require more construction and operating costs, resulting in a great financial burden.”
Observers point out that using combustion improvers such as heavy oil to raise incineration temperatures that are reduced by moisture-laden diapers will result in increasing costs and damage to the incinerator. It is also difficult to secure a disposal site to bury incineration ash due to opposition from residents in the vicinity.
Wasteful ways
Another reason behind the increase in adult diaper waste seems to be the lack of knowledge among some nursing care workers. Since the 2000s, manufacturers have developed various kinds of diapers with different absorption volumes according to usage purposes. At present, about 400 kinds of diapers are sold, including one capable of absorbing over 1,000cc of liquid.
The more kinds of diapers, the more difficult it becomes to choose optimal ones. Some hospitals and nursing care facilities use diapers in an inappropriate manner, such as using the most absorbent and largest-size diapers and putting on many diapers at once to prevent liquids from seeping through gaps. It is not rare for some elderly people to also be provided with diapers, despite being able to use the bathroom on their own, to prevent them from moving around and falling.
Kiyoko Hamada, the representative of Haisetsu Sogo Kenkyujo, a Kyoto-based institution that holds lectures on issues such as appropriate ways of using diapers, said: “Wrong or careless use of diapers accelerates the increase in diaper waste. It is necessary to make known to more people the appropriate ways of using diapers.”Speech