Project description
A new biodegradable diaper
Disposable baby diapers are very convenient, but they also pose a threat to the environment by generating about 10 million tonnes of plastic waste in Europe each year. Disposable diapers contain super absorbent polymer that is not biodegradable. Unfortunately, no better solution with relevant safety and quality level has been found to date. The EU-funded PAWN project aims to fill that gap by bringing to the market an alternative and ecological solution: the first fully disposable baby diaper that fulfils all requirements thanks to novelty technology that can make polypropylene materials biodegradable. This will enable a fully biodegradable and biocompatible product that meets super absorbency standards.
Objective
About 40% of modern disposable baby diaper consist of super absorbent polymer (SAP), a component that is neither skin friendly nor biodegradable. As a result, each year 21 bn used diaper generate 10M tons of plastic waste in Europe. This waste ends up either in incinerations, where it does not provide a good calorific value due to the high liquid content of the used diapers, or in landfill (about 2.6M tons yearly). The industry as well as the consumers have been searching for eco-friendly alternatives for years, but the material mix in diapers and the high quality and safety requirements for baby products have made this undertaking impossible so far.
There are biodegradable alternatives for the outer non-woven fabrics of the diaper, but these do not yet reach the comfort and skin-friendliness of standard PP-based materials. The situation is even worse for the superabsorbent core, for which no fully biodegradable alternative with satisfying absorbency is available. In the PAWN project, we will bring to the market the first disposable baby diaper that fulfils al requirements. For this aim, the consortium brings together Polygreen (Israel), a start-up company that has developed a biodegradable SAP, Avgol (Israel), a market-leader in non-woven materials, who will integrate a technology to make PolyPropylene materials biodegradable, Celltex (Slovakia), a producer of baby diapers, Wilogis (Germany), a distributor of eco-friendly hygiene products and Novis (Germany), specialists in waste valorization and life cycle analysis.
Over 5 years, the PAWN project will generate €136M of revenues and €30M of profit. The project is highly profitable and will deliver a ROI of 6.66.
Fields of science
Programme(s)
Funding Scheme
IA - Innovation actionCoordinator
6949820 Tel Aviv
Israel
The organization defined itself as SME (small and medium-sized enterprise) at the time the Grant Agreement was signed.