Composting Urine

I hate the disposable lifestyle. Yes, Hate is a strong word. But I really do deplore it. I have been doing clothe diapers since my first child. But, well meaning friends and relatives buy me HUGE Costco size boxes of diapers.

It is a difficult situation. Well, not really, but I think I have a solution that will satisfy all parties.

I have been reading the thread on this forum about using absorbent polymers as a soil additive and other threads about putting urine on the compost pile as a booster. So can anyone think of a good reason why I shouldn't remove the urine soaked polymer blob from the non-poopy diapers and mix them gradually into my compost pile. Aside from the fact that it's kind of gross and anal.
I realize the polymer won't break down and that I'm going to have more urine soaked polymer blobs than I have compost to mix it into. But I have a hard time justifying that waste and I also have a hard time re-gifting. They think they are doing me a favor by giving the gift of less work. I don't know why people think that clothe diapers are a lot of extra work.

I digress. Any thoughts?

I don't know what the polymer blob is, so its hard to say. My inclination is that the polymer blob is not organic and is not compostable...

I think instead of re-gifting, perhaps donate the disposables to charity like a women's shelter or a homeless shelter or something like that.

I do realize that the polymer blob (my lingo for the super absorbent polymers in baby diapers that has been activated) wont' break down. Adding the polymers to soil mixes helps the soil retain moisture. Which is very large concern for me in my extremely sandy soil. The intent behind mixing it into the compost is to recover the nitrogen in the urine for my soil in addition to amending it with the polymers in the diaper to help it retain the moisture i need in the dry summer months.

I have read comments about people composting urine and in separate threads, adding polymers to their soil. I'm considering the feasibility of both at the same time.

My husband thinks I'm nuts. "Have fun . . . ", He told me.

Renwings, Your solution is a good one. Get yourself a copy of "The Humanure Handbook" to see how much valuable resource we flush and how environmentally damaging it is. It also explains how to compost to make sure all the pathogens that might be present are destroyed. Read it and you might not just be scraping those disposables into the compost pile but pouring your cloth diaper rinswater on there too along with getting a waterless toilet system going for the rest of the family. The only negative that there might be is that the polymer crystals in those diapers are not the same as the ones used in diapers. Good news is is that they are designed to break down more quickly, bad news is they might contain chemicals not good for your garden. Check out the threads on polymer crystals, there is a discussion there on this topic in one of them. Personally, If you don't have piles and piles of them I would do it,. If you do have an ungodly ammount I think the suggestion about the homeless shelter is a good idea. I used cloth diapers for my kids too, but I did use some disposables when we went out, it was more convenient than carrying around dirty diapers and the newer diapers are designed to break down, so maybe that might be a solution.

I think it would be an interesting experiment. I am envisioning a polymer blob mess, but I've also never shredded a diaper. I think if the blobs will break apart and not stick together - you might have success.

Let us know how it goes.

I would use the diapers in a compost tea like mix using a barrel to soak the diapers and let the effluent run off. I E slow drip into the barrell and let it run onto the compost pile. When the pail is full of diaper debris dump the effluent onto the compost pile and dispose of the diaper left overs in the land fill.