Breakthrough eco-friendly diapers are designed to eat themselves in landfills

As any parent knows, dealing with diapers is a dirty business. Aside from the unpleasant necessity of changing the child, there's the issue of dealing with and disposing of the used diapers and, subsequently, how they form mountains of additional trash in our landfills. This made the folks at HIRO Technologies ask themselves, “What if we made a diaper that could ‘eat’ itself away?”

This is how HIRO Technologies developed the HIRO MycoDigestible Diaper. Each diaper comes with a packet of plastic-eating mycelium fungi that will break down the diaper’s materials and consume it, not only completely decomposing the diaper but also enriching the soil on the landfill ground. All the parent has to do is place the packet into the diaper before taping it up and tossing it into the garbage can.

According to the World Economic Forum, over 300,000 diapers are collected in landfills or incinerated each minute, and the Environmental Protection Agency says the average plastic disposable diaper can take 500 years to completely decompose. This ever-growing, ever-stinky problem has had eco-conscious parents hoping to find a diaper that’s as convenient as a single-use disposable without contributing to our already gigantic landfills.

“The response has been nothing short of electric. People are hungry for real solutions, and this one hits home—both literally and globally,” said Tero Isokauppila, co-founder of HIRO Technologies, in an interview. Isokauppila is proud of this breakthrough, but is looking forward to testing out other applications for this fungi to reduce waste worldwide.

“If we can break down a diaper, we can break down anything,” he claimed. “Once we’ve gained enough market share, we can partner with other brands and bring this technology to the world.”

For now, the HIRO diapers are sold as a subscription service with a week’s supply of diapers, wipes, and fungi packets at $35/week, but the hope is to provide the product on the store shelves of major retailers. Time will tell if that comes to fruition.

In the meantime, many parents are trying to find ways to raise their baby without heavily contributing to landfills or harming the environment. Aside from using washable cloth diapers, many eco-friendly parents use cloth burp rags, wipes, and rags in general for cleaning to then wash and reuse over and over.

Along with items meant to clean up messes, many parents who practice sustainable living also purchase baby products that can still be used when the child ages out of them. This can include a high chair that transforms into a small stepping stool so the child can wash their hands at a sink, a stroller that can be converted into a car seat, or a changing table that switches into a regular clothes drawer for when the child is fully potty trained.

These are just a few methods a parent can try if they want to reduce the amount of waste that child-rearing can produce. While it is important to raise a child with comfort and care in mind, it would be beneficial to ensure that the child also has a great global environment to inherit as they grow.