Apparatus for recycling waste from an absorbent article processing line

A production line for manufacturing disposable absorbent articles, the production line extruding a number of polymeric materials and forming from the extruded polymeric materials individual components of the disposable absorbent articles including a liquid pervious topeheet, a liquid impervious backsheet and an absorbent core disposed therebetween, the production line comprising:

• a) a first moving surface to move a web of material through the production line;
• b) a backsheet station adjacent the first moving surface to form the backsheet by extruding a first polymeric material onto the first moving surface, the first polymeric material being provided to the backsheet station as a first starting material,
• c) a core station adjacent the first moving surface to form the absorbent core by extruding a second polymeric material onto the backsheet, the second polymeric material being provided to the core station as a second starting material;
• d) a second moving surface to move a web of material through the production line;
• e) a topsheet station adjacent the second moving surface to form the topsheet by extruding a third polymeric material onto the second moving surface, the third polymeric material being provided to the topsheet station as a third starting material, the topsheet being placed onto the absorbent core;
• f) one or more cutting devices adjacent the first and second moving surfaces to cut a side-trim to form lateral configurations of the topsheet or the backsheet;
• g) a first recycling station for collecting and recycling the side-trim into a first recycled material;
• h) a second recycling station for collecting and recycling non-woven materials of the topsheet, the backsheet or the absorbent core during an outage of the production line into a second recycled material;
• i) one or more bonding modules adjacent the first and second moving surfaces to provide the second recycled material for bonding the backsheet or the topsheet;
• and j) a conduit for providing the second recycled material from the second recycling station to one or more of the bonding modules.