Extrusion International 3-2026

42 Extrusion International 3/2026 RECYCLING Turning Waste into Raw Materials – Recycling Diapers Instead of Burning Them T he founding team at LaMa Re- cycling is carrying out an inno- vative research project at the SKZ Plastics Center to recycle previously unusable production waste from di- aper manufacturing. Instead of be- ing incinerated, cellulose, plastics, and superabsorbents can be sepa- rated, processed, and returned to the raw material cycle—a step that conserves resources and reduces CO 2 emissions. The founding team of LaMa Recy- cling—Dr. Marieluise Lang, Dr. Lars Helmlinger, and Thomas Wolz – is developing a novel recycling process to recover valuable raw materials from production waste generated during plastic processing. The goal of the research project is to develop an industrially viable process that returns previously non-recyclable production residues back into the raw material cycle. The focus includes, among other things, polyole n blends and plastic chips from industrial manufactur- ing, which have so far been entirely incinerated. As a result, the mate- rials they contain are irretrievably lost and further burden the carbon footprint. The new technology is designed to process this waste and make the contained raw materi- als available again – an important contribution to resource conserva- tion and the reduction of emissions. A particular focus is on production waste from diaper manufacturing. “Around six billion diapers for children and adults are produced in Germany each year. About three percent of these, roughly 15,000 tons, are production waste that has previously been entirely inciner- ated,” explains Dr. Marieluise Lang. “This results in the loss of valuable raw materials, while at the same time, thermal recycling signi cantly impacts the carbon footprint. Superabsorbents as a Recycling Obstacle A major obstacle to the recycling of diaper production waste is so- called superabsorbents—highly absorbent polymers that enable di- apers to absorb liquids. Their chemi- cal properties have made recycling them costly or economically unvi- able until now. Scalable Recycling Process Since September 2025, the inter- disciplinary team at LaMa Recycling Technologies has been working at full strength. In the current project phase, thework focuses on the tech- nical scaling of the process. The goal is to establish a stable and scalable recycling process with a processing capacity of at least 500 kilograms per hour by the end of the project – an important step toward the indus- trial application of the technology. The project is being implemented at SKZ, as the institute draws on many years of experience in plastics research and provides state-of-the- art laboratories for the development of innovative recycling technologies. SKZ is also supporting the spin-off of LaMa Recycling and assisting the team in translating research results into practical applications. The SKZ Plastics Center Stefan Zuljevic s.zuljevic@skz.de, www.skz.de The LaMa Recycling project team is conducting an innovative research project at SKZ to develop a novel recycling process as part of the “EXIST Research Transfer” funding program. (From left): Stefan Zuljevic, Dr. Lars Helmlinger, Dr. Marieluise Lang, and Thomas Wolz (Photo: SKZ)