[1] Wikipedia discusses the magnitude of the disposable diaper situation (tl;dr – more than 27 billion disposable diapers are used each year in the USA): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diaper#Disposable
[2] Youtube’s engineerguy has a lovely video up about the engineering that goes into disposable diapers: https://youtu.be/xYNX8y6lQMc
[3] I wasn’t joking about diaper materials being treated with particle beams: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4348459/
[4] See also: https://www.symmetrymagazine.org/article/may-2011/accelerator-apps-diapers
[5] Horia M. Nizam El-Din, “Surface coating on cotton fabrics of new multilayer formulations based on superabsorbent hydrogels synthesized by gamma radiation designed for diapers”: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/app.36609
[6] Here’s a diaper patent, owned by Proctor & Gamble (who make Pampers), in which they discuss the cross-linking of polymers in their absorbent hydrogel via electron-beam radiation curing: https://patents.google.com/patent/US7744576B2/en
[7] Not only the super-absorbent gel goo, but also the tape that closes the diaper gets beam-treated: https://patents.google.com/patent/US4643730A/en