Faculty of Science and Engineering, Southern Cross University, Australia.
School of Chemical Engineering, The University of Queensland, Australia.
Waste Manag. 2022 Oct;152:30-37. doi: 10.1016/j.wasman.2022.07.038. Epub 2022 Aug 11.
The environmental issues relating to disposable of infant nappies have received considerable attention. However, adult absorbent hygiene products (AHPs) receive less attention, despite having comparable or greater environmental impact. Here we quantify and compare current and future flows of continence related AHPs entering waste streams from both infant and adult populations. Importantly our study accounts for current waste management and landfilling practices across Australia and the environmental implications of AHP disposal. Absorbent hygiene product use from infants and adults was modelled from 2020 to 2030 for Australia, and it's predicted that AHP waste generated by adults will account for between 4 and 10 times that of infants by 2030 due to an aging population. Our results indicate that 50% of used AHPs end up in landfill with both leachate and biogas collection, the remainder going to landfills without biogas collection or without both leachate and biogas collection, based on the most recent national data set, which is over a decade old. The average composition of used absorbent hygiene product (including 60% urine and faeces by mass) is estimated to contain 20% non-biodegradable material, which may complicate the biodegradability of absorbent hygiene products in landfill. Without additional regulatory incentive, the current waste management practices in Australia are likely to continue, with absorbent hygiene products typically entering landfill as municipal solid waste, rather than industrial composting or recycling facilities. More accurate estimation of environmental implications from these disposal pathways requires further work including biodegradation experiments currently unavailable in the literature.
与一次性婴儿尿布相关的环境问题已经引起了相当大的关注。然而，尽管成人吸收性卫生用品（Absorbent Hygiene Products，AHPs）对环境的影响可能与之相当，甚至更大，但它们却没有得到同样的关注。在这里，我们定量比较了当前和未来流入澳大利亚婴幼儿人群废物中的与失禁相关的 AHPs 流。重要的是，我们的研究考虑了当前的废物管理和填埋实践，以及 AHP 处置的环境影响。我们根据澳大利亚 2020 年至 2030 年的婴儿和成人吸收性卫生用品使用数据，对成人和婴儿的吸收性卫生用品使用情况进行了建模。由于人口老龄化，预计到 2030 年，成人产生的 AHP 废物将是婴儿的 4 到 10 倍。我们的研究结果表明，在最新的国家数据集基础上（该数据集已有十余年的历史），50%的使用过的 AHPs 最终会被填埋，同时会有渗滤液和沼气收集，其余的则会被填埋，而没有沼气收集，或者既没有渗滤液也没有沼气收集。使用过的吸收性卫生用品（按质量计算，包括 60%的尿液和粪便）的平均组成估计含有 20%的不可生物降解物质，这可能会使吸收性卫生用品在垃圾填埋场中的生物降解性复杂化。如果没有额外的监管激励，澳大利亚目前的废物管理实践可能会继续下去，吸收性卫生用品通常会作为城市固体废物进入垃圾填埋场，而不是工业堆肥或回收设施。要更准确地估计这些处置途径对环境的影响，需要进一步的工作，包括目前文献中尚不可用的生物降解实验。
