Giuseppe Landolfo, CFO at i-Foria, explains how Europe is closing one of its most overlooked waste loops: nappies.
When we talk about the circular economy, attention typically turns to steel, concrete, timber or energy; rarely does the conversation begin with nappies.
Yet absorbent hygiene products (AHPs), including disposable nappies, sanitary pads and incontinence products, represent one of Europe’s most persistent and problematic waste streams, accounting for around 4–7% of municipal solid waste. Every year in Italy alone, enough AHP waste is landfilled to fill, close and replace three entire landfill sites.
Until recently, these products were widely considered impossible to recycle. Made from complex layers of plastics, cellulose fibres and superabsorbent polymers, and contaminated after use, AHPs have sat firmly at the end of a linear model: manufacture, consume, dispose. That assumption is now being challenged.
In July 2025, a new recycling demonstration facility opened in Spresiano, Veneto, marking a global first: a plant capable of recovering high-quality secondary raw materials from used absorbent hygiene products.
Powered by proprietary technology developed by Italian clean-tech company i-Foria and supported by the EU-funded ICARUS project, the facility represents more than a technical breakthrough. It signals what a truly circular construction ecosystem could look like when innovation, policy and infrastructure begin to align.
Turning the unrecyclable into a resource
The Spresiano demonstration plant operates at a pre-industrial scale, processing around 100 kilograms of AHP waste per batch. The plant demonstrates that nappies and other hygiene products can be sterilised, separated and transformed into materials suitable for reuse under Italy’s strict End-of-Waste criteria, using a process designed for low energy consumption and high efficiency.
The process begins with controlled collection. Used products undergo thermo-mechanical treatment and sterilisation, addressing one of the central barriers to AHP recycling: biological contamination. The material is then separated into two high-value outputs (plastics, absorbent material), each assessed for quality and reuse potential.
What emerges defies expectations. The plastics recovered from AHPs are notably high grade, retaining performance characteristics originally designed to be thin, flexible and skin-safe. Once granulated, they can be reintegrated into manufacturing streams for products ranging from urban furniture and playground components to clothes hangers.
The cellulose fraction is equally compelling. Unlike wood-based pulp, AHP cellulose is largely lignin-free, soft and high-purity, having been designed to sit against human skin. These characteristics make it well-suited for construction applications such as insulation panels, construction fillers and composite materials – sectors urgently seeking lower-carbon and bio-based inputs.
Each tonne of recycled AHP material displaces virgin pulp and fossil-based plastics, cutting carbon emissions while reducing pressure on forests and non-renewable resources. This is not downcycling. It is high-value circular recovery.
Construction’s circular blind spot
The relevance to the built environment is hard to overstate. Construction remains one of Europe’s least circular sectors. Across the EU, it accounts for close to 40% of total carbon emissions and generates nearly one-third of all waste. Yet only around 40% of construction and demolition waste is successfully reused or recycled, and much of that is downcycled into lower-grade applications.
In 2024, the EU’s construction sector recorded a circular material use rate of just 12%, highlighting how early the transition still is. Against this backdrop, alternative secondary raw materials are no longer a niche interest but a strategic necessity.
Rising material costs, supply chain volatility and declining natural resources are forcing the industry to rethink where materials come from – and what counts as ‘waste’. This is where initiatives such as ICARUS come into focus.
ICARUS: Closing loops across sectors
Funded under the Horizon Europe programme and led by ACCIONA’s Construction business, ICARUS brings together 18 partners from seven European countries, including Belgium, Italy, Spain, Portugal, Germany, France and the Netherlands. Its ambition is to transform industrial and urban waste streams into high-quality secondary raw materials for use in construction, mobility, energy and manufacturing.
The Spresiano facility forms a critical part of this vision. Beyond AHP recycling, the plant is also being used to validate the recovery and upcycling of cellulosic materials extracted from urban wastewater treatment plants operated by ACCIONA Water Business. Traditionally disposed of as sludge, these fibres are now being processed for high-value applications across construction, chemical and technological sectors.
To support consistency and scalability, ICARUS is integrating AI-powered digital platforms to optimise operations, monitor material quality and improve process efficiency. The aim is not only to recover materials, but to recover them at standards that allow seamless reintegration into industrial supply chains.
This focus on quality is essential. For circular construction to scale, secondary raw materials must meet the same technical and regulatory requirements as virgin inputs. Anything less risks locking recycled materials into low-value niches.
A nappy problem hiding in plain sight
The potential impact extends far beyond Italy. Disposable nappies are an unavoidable part of modern life. Around 95% of families in developed countries rely on them, with each child using between 4,000 and 6,000 nappies before being potty trained. Globally, more than 300,000 disposable nappies are sent to landfill or incineration every minute.
The environmental cost is staggering. According to the Ellen MacArthur Foundation, the disposable nappy industry consumes over 248 million barrels of crude oil every year. Most nappies take between 150 and 500 years to decompose.
In regions without robust waste infrastructure, the problem becomes visible and acute. Nappies account for a significant share of plastic pollution in waterways, from Southeast Asia to West Africa, where fishers regularly report diapers floating out to sea.
Yet alternatives remain limited. Bio-based disposable nappies are expensive, while reusable cloth nappies require access to clean water, laundry facilities and time – resources that are not always available, particularly for new parents.
For decades, recycling was dismissed as technically unfeasible. The mixed materials, the bonding methods, and the biological contamination all posed formidable barriers. i-Foria’s innovation lies in showing that those barriers are no longer insurmountable.
Policy, markets and the missing middle
Europe’s policy landscape is beginning to catch up. The forthcoming EU Circular Economy Act, expected in 2026, aims to establish a true Single Market for secondary raw materials by stimulating both supply and demand for high-quality recycled inputs. The goal is to double the EU’s circularity rate from around 12% to 24% by 2030 – a shift expected to create hundreds of thousands of jobs and unlock significant investment.
Yet technology alone is not enough. One of the challenges facing AHP recycling is what happens after the bin is emptied. In Italy, around 20 million citizens are already served by separate diaper collection schemes. In municipalities with effective door-to-door systems, nappies are already being sorted – only to be sent, paradoxically, to incineration or landfill due to the absence of suitable recycling infrastructure.
The Spresiano plant addresses this missing middle. It demonstrates how separately collected AHP waste can be transformed into industrial feedstock rather than treated as an expensive disposal problem.
The next step is scale. i-Foria plans to develop a semi-industrial module operating on continuous feed, capable of processing one to two tonnes of AHP waste per day. Backed by a mix of public and private investment, the objective is to prove economic viability at scale and support replication across Europe.
Building with tomorrow’s waste
For the construction sector, the implications are profound. Recovered cellulose fibres can displace virgin materials in insulation, panels and composites. Recycled AHP plastics can re-enter durable applications. Wastewater cellulose can open up entirely new bio-based material pathways.
More importantly, projects like ICARUS point towards a construction industry that no longer sees waste management as someone else’s problem. Instead, waste becomes a shared resource pool – one that spans municipal services, manufacturing, water utilities and construction.
From a circular economy perspective, this is what maturity looks like: not isolated recycling initiatives, but integrated value chains where materials flow across sectors, enabled by technology, standards and collaboration.
Few would have predicted that disposable nappies might one day help insulate homes or reduce reliance on virgin plastics. But as Europe grapples with climate targets, resource constraints and mounting waste, the question is no longer whether such transformations are possible.
The technology exists. The waste exists. The demand exists.
What comes next is a choice – an opportunity – to build a construction economy from materials we once threw away.
