Government building rules and regulations can be outdated and misguided, requiring conventional building materials at prices that are unsuitable for building affordable homes.of Building codes proposed by the United Nations for decades Previously, the use of local, low-cost, environmentally friendly materials was often discouraged.
Recently, some researchers have suggested that incorporating the former into the latter could solve two problems plaguing burgeoning cities: excess non-biodegradable waste and a shortage of building materials. I’m guessing not. Now, a Japanese research team reports that used, disinfected disposable diapers can be incorporated into concrete or mortar and still meet Indonesian building codes. As the urban population continues to grow and housing is in short supply, there is a desperate need for low-cost housing. Clearly, people who migrate to cities are bringing more waste into cities.
Diapers replace the fine aggregate normally used in the production of concrete. The research team determined that mortars for structural components such as load-bearing walls and pavements could only tolerate up to 10 percent additional diaper material. However, mortars and concretes for non-structural components such as non-bearing wall partitions and low-impact floor pavements can allow up to 40 percent of the aggregate to be replaced by diaper material.
Currently, facilities for recycling dirty diapers exist only in developed countries. In this study, diapers were washed, dried, and disinfected with sodium chloride. (Perhaps because most intestinal bacteria cannot tolerate high salinity?) Biological oxygen demand tests show that concrete made from used diapers has the same salt content as concrete made from clean diapers. It was shown to contain a large amount of micro-organisms.
Disinfecting diapers and adding them to concrete is certainly a better option than the current common practice of incineration. Hopefully industrial scale farmers will take notice and try to solve the two problems of toxic fertilizer lakes where animals are raised and the need to spray synthetic nitrogen fertilizers where crops are grown. I hope that
Scientific Reports, 2023. DOIs: 10.1038/s41598-023-32981-y
