Invasion of diapers and plastics

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Diapers are widely used for babies nowadays.

MOST, if not all, mothers of today wrap their babies in disposable diapers.

Diapering is, arguably, the most important decision parents could make for the environment and their young children who are in these nappies around the clock for upward of two years.

So far, no studies have indicated the absorbent substance used in these disposables harms babies and no one can say definitively whether cloth or disposable diapers are better for the environment.

But these are the facts – the average baby goes through six to eight diapers a day. Unless one practises elimination communication, a baby will use between 5,475–7,300 diapers before potty training around 30 months old.

Because 95 per cent of these diaper changes are disposables, most end up in landfills.

There are about 420,000 deliveries per year in Malaysia, according to Dr J Ravichandran

R Jeganathan, the Health Ministry’s national head of Obstetrics and Gynaecological Services and national head of Maternal Fetal Medicine Services.

There are no statistics on deliveries per year in Sarawak or the amount of diapers used, but a study by National Resources and Environment Board (NREB) last year showed diapers made up the bulk of the waste disposed in all landfills statewide.

The study, aimed establishing a baseline composition of the solid waste generated from residential, commercial, institutional and industrial sectors in Mukah Division, indicated diapers made up 13.7 per cent of the 8,825 tonnes of waste dumped at open dumpsites within six months.

Plastics made up 9.7 per cent of the total solid waste. Similar patterns are found in Dalat and probably all landfills throughout the state.

So, obviously disposable diapers are one of the largest consumer items disposed of at landfills, representing over 50 per cent of non-biodegradable waste.

The other items outnumbering diapers and plastics are organic waste and papers.

Although it may seem as if an individual child doesn’t contribute much to those numbers, babies wearing disposable diapers create tonnes of garbage over the course of two years.

Garbage bins overflowing with discarded diapers and other rubbish.

Natural Resources and Environment Deputy Minister Datuk Seri Dr James Dawos Mamit said it took hundreds of years for plastics, including disposable diapers, to decompose when exposed to sunlight and air.

Since diapers are dumped at landfills, covered and not exposed to sun or air at all, nobody knows how many hundreds – or even thousands – of years they could be around.

Dawos said even so-called ‘eco-friendly’ diapers, labelled as biodegradable, do not biodegrade in landfills, posing as much a problem as plastic bags.

Sadly, in the few minutes it takes you to read this article, another few thousand throwaway diapers will have entered landfills in the state where they will sit for at least 300 years before decomposing.

A landfill is not a composting facility. Nothing degrades well in a landfill.

Because biodegradable diapers are fairly new, no studies have compared their health benefits to non-degradable disposable diapers.

But one thing is clear – diapers are joining plastic bags and bottles in invading and shortening the lifespan of landfills.

Like a plastic bag, a typical disposable diaper may take hundreds of years to fully decompose  – although nobody really knows – since no disposables have been found at a landfill that long.

Modern disposable diapers are usually made with an exterior of plastic such as non-woven polypropylene that is waterproof.

NREB controller Peter Sawal said like single-use plastic bags and bottles, diapers were also a huge threat to the environment as probably billions of plastic bags and bottles and diapers are used annually.

He said plastics, as a whole, would reduce the lifespan of landfills in Sarawak.

As indicated in the two NREB studies in Mukah and Dalat, plastics make up about 10 per cent of waste volume in most of the landfills in the state.

Peter noted plastic does not readily degrade at a landfill, hence, plastic bags, containers and bottles disposed at the dumpsite might be there for hundreds of years.

“Unlike a paper bag that will biodegrade quickly when exposed to the elements, plastics may take hundreds of years to photodegrade.

“This will eventually reduce the lifespan of the landfills,” he pointed out.

In 2011, a total of 46 landfills with a total area of 369.2 hectares, were actively operating in the state, of which only five were sanitary landfills and 41 open landfills.

No studies on usage of plastics or volumes of plastics used in everyday life have been carried out in Sarawak so far but considering the current trend of plastics usage in the state, each household might generate about 0.9 to 1kg per day of plastic waste.

And these disposable plastic bags and bottles, and diapers may be left to sit inside the landfills for centuries.

Peter said the solid waste generated from both residential and commercial establishments would continue to increase correspondingly with increase in the total population, improvement in living standards and changing lifestyles.

He said most of the major urban centres in the state produced large quantities of waste, including plastic-based products.

Indeed, plastics are all around us – in bottles, wrappings, tables and chairs, cup lids, cars, computers and cell phones – a glaring example of the unavoidable, non-biodegradable reality of modern existence.

News of plastics invading the oceans and poisoning our soil naturally horrify us and rightly so.

But the sad truth is our consumption of and need for plastics are continually growing – not shrinking.

Several countries, regions and cities have enacted legislations to ban or severely reduce the use of disposable plastic shopping bags.

Peter said NREB, in collaboration with the local councils, non-government organisations and individuals, had organised several campaigns to create awareness to minimise the use of plastic bags.

He added that Miri City Council and Sibu Municipal Council had introduced No Plastic Bag Day on Sundays and Mondays respectively while some supermarkets have implemented such a  day once a week to reduce the use of plastic bags but the volume of plastic bags being used was still very big.

“The use of plastics is still very significant in the state while only a small percentage of them and other plastic-based products are recycled each year.”

Peter said plastic was an extremely common component in pollution today, and the same scenario was observed in Sarawak.

He pointed out that the results of studies in Mukah and Dalat were comparable with past wastes composition studies carried out in Sarawak as well as other locations in Malaysia.

The high percentage of recyclable waste found indicated relatively low level of recycling activities in the areas.

“There is a lack of recycling collection systems and active recycling players due to logistic problems and the fact that it is not economically feasible to transport these recyclable materials to processing plants in other major towns like Sibu and Kuching.

“Lack of awareness of and participation in 3R (Reduce, Reuse and Recycle) is another possible reason for the high percentage of recyclable wastes at landfills,” he added.

Peter lamented that utilisation of recycling facilities was not feasible in areas far away from recycling centres.

Aside from shortening the landfill’s lifespan, plastic litter can be deadly to wildlife in many ways.

Findings indicate plastic bags and plastic food containers often carry scents that appeal to animals, attracting them to eat the plastic.

The plastic becomes permanently lodged in the animals’ digestive tracts, blocking the passage of food and leading to death by starvation or infection.

Animals also frequently die from entanglement in plastic fishing lines and plastic six-pack holders, and sometimes by getting trapped inside plastic bottles and containers.

Improper disposal of plastic is a major contributor to water pollution.

It is common to see styrofoam cups, plastic bags and caps from ballpoint pens being swept down urban storm drains into streams, rivers, and ultimately into the oceans.

It has been discovered that marine animals are especially prone to eating bits of plastic because they look kike their natural prey or because they are contaminated with food residues.

Plastic can block an animal’s digestive tract, causing starvation, infection and death, if ingested.

From start to finish, plastics release toxins into the environment.

Toxic substances are used to make nearly all types of plastic and thus, as a whole, the plastics industry releases toxins into the environment at every stage of plastic production, its use and disposal.

When incinerated, plastics release over 90 different chemicals into the atmosphere.

When plastics are thrown away as litter or escape from landfills on wind and water, they leach countless chemicals into our soils, streams, rivers, and oceans.

Because so many different types of plastic are burnt and degraded everyday and because they release so many different toxic chemicals into our environment, it is impossible to quantify the level of toxicity that plastics pose to life on Earth.

For every known biological system, including the nervous system, reproductive system, immune system, hormonal system, and the regulation of cell reproduction and cancer, research has found a variety of plastic component substances to be toxic.

Aside from that, plastic bags litter serves as a floating transportation agent that enables alien species to move to new parts of the world, thus threatening biodiversity.