Two dads, Mark Arishenkoff and Kyle MacQuarrie, are taking the odour out of the trash can and looking for more communities to climb aboard the disposal diaper composting bus. While Soiled Diapers, a Calgary-based company, has been operational for more than a year, last week marks the premiere municipal drop off site in the townsite of Redwood Meadows. With a population of around 1,000, with a considerable percentage of that being young families with diaper-aged children, the tightly-knit community is excited to be the first to do its part in cutting down landfill waste thanks to cutting-edge technology – an in-vessel composting unit manufactured abroad. "It's so easy," said Aspen Gowers, resident and mother of two, who trotted her first bag of disposable diapers to the locked 4x6 shed put up behind Redwood House. Aside from convenient, the drop box is also bear-proof (odour-proof) and all residents using the service have shed access. "It's so bad for the environment with all these diapers ... it would be great if the word got out about this." Mike Decore, a town councillor for Redwood, said the initiative has been well-received thus far and at no additional cost to residents. The townsite is able to absorb the weekly collection costs that amount to less than $200/month in their waste disposal management budget. "We did a bit of vetting in the community ... it seems viable," said Decore, who is interested to see if other communities will follow suit, as Canmore has already reached out to Redwood for feedback. Arishenkoff, father of six with another on the way, and MacQuarrie, father of two, met as adult students in university in 2014. What began as a business plan project became reality the following year when the duo on a mission to reduce diapers in landfills turned their project into an incorporated business; around 2.4 million diapers make it into landfills in Canada each year, according to Soiled Diapers. Since then, they have been building private contracts, collecting and storing diapers. Once enough diapers are collected the duo will ship their in-vessel composting unit to Canada. There needs to be a collection of 2.5 tonnes per day of disposable diapers to make turning on the machine viable. "We tailor our services to the needs of the community ... our biggest hurdle is awareness." Fabrizio Bertolo, manager of waste and recycling for the Town of Cochrane, said the town is open to learning more about the initiative. He was approached by Soiled Diapers two years ago, but at that time felt the business was little more than an idea and is interested to see how the in-vessel composting unit works and take a hard look at the cost to ensure it would be affordable for Cochrane. Arishenkoff said Calgary rejected their proposal to add the opt-in diaper composting curbside pickup to their waste and recycling program, based on the belief that there would be "negligible demand." He said that this is simply not the case and that hundreds of Calgarians have reached out to inquire whether or not a potential municipal buy-in is in the cards. He said he thinks there is also an appetite in Cochrane for such a service, based on feedback to date. Composting Diapers According to Arishenkoff, the unit is completely self-contained and is the only machine he and his business partner are aware of with the capacity to compost all diaper components – with the exception of the diaper tabs – odour-free and free of any leachate (toxic waste). The composting process takes 10 to 12 days. Once complete, the compost can be used for a number of non-food related applications – mine reclamation and roadside rehabilitation as examples. Arishenkoff said their long-term goal is to get the compost approved for garden compost uses. "Redwood Meadows is the first community as a whole to adopt it ... we are looking to launch it into other communities," explained Arishenkoff, adding that municipal buy-in will make the service affordable for the average user. To learn more about Soiled Diapers and their private disposable diaper supply and curbside pickup programs, visit soileddiapers.ca.
