As a new Mom or Dad, it’s easy to feel that you’re changing a ton of diapers, but the reality is that by the time your little one has been potty trained, you will have truly have changed approximately one ton of diapers. While this knowledge might make you feel a little impressed about your parenting skills, it probably also gives you some feelings of green guilt. After all, disposable diapers end up in landfills where they can spend about 500 years trying to decompose—not a baby memento anyone wants to hang onto. Thanks to recycling company Knowaste, however, parents in the United Kingdom will soon be able to clean up their act when it comes the environment and diapers. That’s because the company is planning to open a diaper recycling facility in May of 2010.

The facility couldn’t come at a better time, with the population ever increasing and the resources that are required to create diapers (more trees than you would ever expect) are dwindling everyday. Knowaste hopes to tackle some of the 8 million diapers that get thrown away in the UK every day and if they can process even a small portion of that number, the effects could be inspiring.

Of  course, there are some potential drawbacks with diaper recycling—aside from the “ick” factor—Knowaste will be using their own fair share of resources to wash, sanitize, and mechanically separate the diapers (not to mention the transportation impact that could arise from shipping the dirty diapers). There are also some chemical steps in the diaper recycling process, and depending on the chemicals used there could be detrimental earth effects in that realm as well. Still, diverting the many tons of diaper waste that filter into landfills into plastic to make other goods seems worth a shot and the fact that Knowaste is using the un-recyclable and, ahem, organic matter from the diapers to power the facility ups the eco-effectiveness.

As there aren’t any diaper recycling facilities planned for the U.S. yet, you’ll have to find other ways of improving the environmental impact of your baby’s diapers. Typically that means choosing a different diaper, and there are plenty of options for everyone. Try the flushable, plastic-free gDiapers if you crave convenience, the reusable organic cotton bumGenius diapers if you wanted to make the biggest eco-switch, and, at the very least, consider Seventh Generation’s chlorine-free disposable diapers, which eliminate some of a diaper’s pollution.

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