PAWN (965715)

  https://cordis.europa.eu/project/id/965715

  Horizon 2020 (2014-2020)

  PAWN - Full Biodegradable Disposable Baby Diapers

  Fast Track to Innovation (FTI) (EIC-FTI-2018-2020)

  polymer sciences  ·  waste treatment processes

  2020-12-01 Start Date (YY-MM-DD)

  2023-05-31 End Date (YY-MM-DD)

  € 3,959,155 Total Cost

  Description

About 40% of modern disposable baby diaper consist of super absorbent polymer (SAP), a component that is neither skin friendly nor biodegradable. As a result, each year 21 bn used diaper generate 10M tons of plastic waste in Europe. This waste ends up either in incinerations, where it does not provide a good calorific value due to the high liquid content of the used diapers, or in landfill (about 2.6M tons yearly). The industry as well as the consumers have been searching for eco-friendly alternatives for years, but the material mix in diapers and the high quality and safety requirements for baby products have made this undertaking impossible so far. There are biodegradable alternatives for the outer non-woven fabrics of the diaper, but these do not yet reach the comfort and skin-friendliness of standard PP-based materials. The situation is even worse for the superabsorbent core, for which no fully biodegradable alternative with satisfying absorbency is available. In the PAWN project, we will bring to the market the first disposable baby diaper that fulfils al requirements. For this aim, the consortium brings together Polygreen (Israel), a start-up company that has developed a biodegradable SAP, Avgol (Israel), a market-leader in non-woven materials, who will integrate a technology to make PolyPropylene materials biodegradable, Celltex (Slovakia), a producer of baby diapers, Wilogis (Germany), a distributor of eco-friendly hygiene products and Novis (Germany), specialists in waste valorization and life cycle analysis. Over 5 years, the PAWN project will generate €136M of revenues and €30M of profit. The project is highly profitable and will deliver a ROI of 6.66.

  Complicit Organisations

2 Israeli organisations participate in PAWN.