The UK's first ever plant for recycling nappies is to opentoday. The facility, which will also recycle feminine hygiene and adultincontinence products, is the first of five planned over four years by Knowaste,an organisation which specialises in absorbent hygiene product (AHP) wasterecycling.

Knowaste said the first site in West Bromwich will usestate-of-the-art technology to recycle AHPs, sterilising and separating thematerials to recover plastic and fibre that can then be used for making newproducts, such as roof tiles or plastic components and fibre based constructionand commercial tubes.

Roy Brown, chief executive officer of Knowaste, said: "Thisfirst site in West Bromwich represents the beginning of a £25 million overallinvestment in the UK, that will produce capacity for handling about a fifth ofthe AHP waste stream - equating to a saving of 110,000 tonnes of greenhouse gasemissions a year.

"In the UK, more than one million tonnes of AHP waste isgenerated annually, much of which is landfilled. A significant proportion ofwhich is produced by the commercial sector and we are proud to be working withsome of the Midland's and nation's leading AHP collection companies already."