Economic and Technological Feasibility Study on Pre- and Post-Consumer Recycling of Disposable Diaper in Korea

Abstract An extensive literature survey and personal communication with relevant experts made it possible to understand economicand technical feasibility of disposable diaper recycling. Commercial level of soiled diaper recycling technology is currently avail-able from a Dutch company, Knowaste Co., who owns a proprietary separation technology of the pulps, plastics and superabsorbing polymer (SAP). In Korea, on the other hand, pre-consumer diaper recycling technology without material separationat its infancy converts manufacturing scraps into refuse plastic fuel (RPF), container/truck cargo boards or automobile boards/sheets. Although previous studies on feasibility of post-consumer recycling in Korea showed mutually contradictory implication,it was found out in this research that significantly positive economic feasibility can be obtained with pre-consumer diaper recy-cling. Subsequent recycling R&D including pre-consumer scrap and policy support may expedite 'Establishment of SustainableSociety.Key words : diaper waste, recycling, economic and technical feasibility · Received : January 9, 2015 · Revised : January 29, 2015 · Accepted : February 3, 2015Corresponding Author : Joong Woo Ahn (E-mail : jwahn@sungshin.ac.kr)Department of Interdisciplinary Eco-Science, Sungshin Women’s University, 55 Dobong-ro 76ga-gil, Gangbuk-gu, Seoul, 142-732 KoreaTel : +82-2-920-7897 / Fax : +82-2-920-2786ⓒThe Korean Institute of Resources Recycling. All rights reserved. This is an open-access article distributed under the termsof the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/), which permitsunrestricted non-commercial use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.