Townsite becomes 1st in Alberta to compost disposable diapers

Redwood Meadows is now the first municipality in Alberta and one of just a few in Canada to divert disposable diapers from its landfill.

The townsite launched its partnership with Calgary-based Soiled Diapers Composting Service on Nov. 12.

Coun. Mike Decore said there's a ton of demand.

"We are quite a young community. We have a population of just over 1,000 people, where we have around 175 to 180 kids as of our last census under the age of four, so that means that many kids in diapers. That's a lot of diapers for our townsite," Decore said.

The diaper drop-off site is centrally located at the townsite office's parking lot to make it easy for parents to be eco-friendly.

"They've constructed a secure shed that has a code on it, and then inside there's two bear-proof bins that residents can go and deposit their diapers into and then lock the shed as they're leaving.

"The diapers can be in the diaper bags themselves that are already in there, the plastic ones. You don't have to separate it or put them in a separate bag or take anything out."

The diapers will be collected once a week for composting.

Diapers generate tons of waste

According to Soiled Diapers Composting Service, 2.4 billion diapers enter Canadian landfills each year, which equals more than 3.7 million tons of waste. The composting service says it can break down any brand of disposable diaper in 10 to 12 days.

Decore said so far the townsite's received positive feedback about the service.

Redwood Meadows is located about 30 kilometres west of Calgary.

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