In Switzerland, design student Luisa Kahlfeldt has developed a disposable diaper made from seaweed and eucalyptus.
For the inner layers of the diapers, Kahlfeldt, a student at ECAL, used SeaCell fiber, a material that has the added bonus of being antibacterial and good for baby’s skin. The outer, waterproof layer is made from EcoRepel, a biodegradable waterproof fabric produced by Schoeller. The diapers are call Sumo, because babies wearing them look like little sumo wrestlers.
Twenty billion diapers—equating to 3.5 million tons of non-biodegradable plastic waste—end up in American landfills annually, according to the EPA. The seaweed diapers also offer an alternative to reusable cotton diapers, which, like all cotton garments, require large amounts of water to generate.