Samenwerkende Kinderopvang partners with Woosh to recycle 3.5M diapers annually

BELGIUM – Samenwerkende Kinderopvang, a Dutch childcare organization that operates more than 230 daycare centers and uses around 3.5 million diapers annually, is switching to the closed-loop diaper service from Belgian brand Woosh. 

The move is intended to substantially reduce diaper waste and further boost the circular economy.

The partnership, announced at the KindVak trade fair in Den Bosch, makes Samenwerkende Kinderopvang the first Dutch childcare operator to adopt large-scale diaper recycling in collaboration with Woosh, whose diapers are designed for recycling and whose service covers collection and processing entirely in-house.

Every year, about one billion diapers end up in the trash in the Netherlands, and the government aims to recycle at least a quarter of this diaper waste by 2032, although the country currently lacks sufficient capacity to recycle all of it. 

Corona Sanders-Koek, managing director of Samenwerkende Kinderopvang, stated, “By using recyclable diapers, we are shrinking the mountain of waste and reducing CO2 emissions.”

“Our scale allows us to make a truly substantial impact, which aligns perfectly with our sustainability strategy, one that prioritizes quality and comfort for the children alongside ease of use for our staff.” 

Woosh will collect used diapers from the childcare facilities and process them at its own recycling facility in Bruges, Belgium, where plastic materials are turned into new raw materials for products such as packaging and organic components are used to generate energy. 

The Woosh diaper was developed around the “designed-for-recycling” principle, with product design and material choices that facilitate recycling used diapers; collection and processing are also managed entirely in-house, making Woosh one of the few brands worldwide to control the entire process.

Samenwerkende Kinderopvang expects to complete the transition to Woosh diapers by May 2027, with all its daycare centers and preschool locations switching exclusively to the circular diapers. 

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

This move comes shortly after Borouge International and BlueAlp recently partnered with Woosh to chemically recycle single-use baby diapers, converting them into pyrolysis oils that can be used to make new polymers.

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