Samenwerkende Kinderopvang, a Dutch childcare organization, is partnering with Belgian diaper service provider Woosh to recycle diapers on a large scale. More than 230 daycare centers will switch to Woosh’s diaper service, covering around 3.5 million diapers annually. The initiative aims to reduce diaper waste and support the development of a more circular approach to diaper use in the childcare sector.

Samenwerkende Kinderopvang and Woosh launch large-scale diaper recycling initiative

Every year, 1 billion diapers end up in the trash in the Netherlands. The government wants at least a quarter of this diaper waste to be recycled by 2032. However, there is insufficient capacity in the Netherlands to recycle all this diaper waste.

Samenwerkende Kinderopvang, with over 230 childcare and preschool locations, wants to put an end to the pollution caused by diapers and is the first childcare organization in the Netherlands to switch to Woosh's diaper service.

 “With recyclable diapers, we reduce the amount of waste and decrease CO2 emissions . Due to our scale, we can make a truly substantial impact, and that fits perfectly into our sustainable strategy, in which we keep an eye on quality and comfort for the children and ease of use for our employees,” says Corona Sanders-Koek, General Director of Samenwerkende Kinderopvang.

Across its childcare and preschool locations, Samenwerkende Kinderopvang will now use Woosh’s circular diapers exclusively.

Woosh provides an integrated service covering diaper collection and processing. Used diapers are processed at Woosh’s recycling facility in Bruges, where the plastic components are recovered as raw materials for applications including packaging, while the organic components are currently used to generate energy.

The Woosh diaper was developed according to the 'designed-for-recycling' principle: product design and material choices that make recycling of the used diaper easier. Collection and processing are also entirely managed in-house. This makes Woosh one of the few brands worldwide that keeps the entire process in its own hands.

“For us, this collaboration is proof that as a large organization, you can take responsibility for a product long after it has been used. To us, a used diaper is not waste, but a raw material,” says Jeff Stubbe, CEO of Woosh.

By May 2027, all daycare centers and preschools under the Samenwerkende Kinderopvang labels will have switched to Woosh diapers. “We hope to be an example for other childcare organizations in the Netherlands and make diaper recycling the new norm. Only through joint effort can we work towards a world without diaper waste,” says Sanders-Koek.

With the recycling plant in Belgium, the diaper service has sufficient capacity to process all diapers from both the Belgian and Dutch locations. Given the strong interest from the Netherlands, Woosh is preparing to build a Dutch facility by the end of 2027.