 Why
use washable nappies?
Financial
You could spend £14.50 per week on
disposable nappies, nappy sacks and baby wipes**. So for the average
child who potty trains somewhere around 30 months that is £1885
per baby! Complete cloth nappy systems can cost as little as £100
although an average figure for the cloth nappies needed from birth
to potty would be between £250 and £350. When purchasing
a nappy set from your Lollipop advisor, you can arrange to make
payments in installments to ease the financial load. Whichever
cloth nappies you choose, you can still benefit from a substantial
saving of between £1200 to £1500. It should also be
remembered that cloth nappies can be used on more than one child,
so using the same nappies on subsequent children will create even
greater savings.
Chemicals
Disposable nappies are made of super absorbent
chemicals, paper pulp, plastics and adhesives.* Washable nappies,
in contrast, can be made from cotton, hemp or even bamboo viscose
fibre. There is so much choice. You can decide what material to
put against your baby’s skin!
Waste
Nearly 3 billion nappies are thrown away in the UK every year.*
The vast majority of these (90%) end up in landfill.* Nearly 8
million nappies are thrown away every day in the UK.*
It is not known how long it might take for the
plastics in disposable nappies to break down in landfill but the
scientific estimates are that it could take up to 500 years. What
we DO know for certain, is that landfill space is running out.
In addition, the European Landfill Directive and national government
policies are driving local authorities to reduce the amount of
municipal waste sent to landfill.* The local authorities are struggling
to stop waste amounts increasing, and so pressure is increased
to turn to alternatives such as incineration. Incineration of
plastics including disposable nappies, however, can lead to emissions
of cancer-causing dioxins and noxious gasses into the atmosphere,
so this potential solution is far from ideal.
Environmental Impact
All nappies have an environmental impact. The only way parents
can reduce environmental impact when using disposable nappies
is to use fewer nappies. When paediatricians suggest ten to twelve
changes a day in the early weeks, reducing to around six a day
later on, to further reduce the number of nappy changes is not
good health practice. Using real nappies puts parents in control.
Ten top tips to help the environment:
- Use an energy efficient washing
machine
- Wash soiled nappies at 40°C
- Wash wet nappies and waterproof
wraps at lower temperatures along with the rest of your laundry
- Avoid tumble drying where
possible and choose a quick drying nappy system instead which
you can air dry.
- Avoid soaking – store
nappies dry in a lidded bucket
- Avoid using unnecessary
chemicals such as fabric conditioners and bleach based detergents.
Using an environmentally friendly nappy sanitizer (available
from Lollipop) is recommended, as it enables the nappies to
be washed at 30 or 40 degrees and therefore saves energy.
- Use eco-detergent
- Never iron nappies or wraps
- Extend the life of your
nappies - reuse them on another baby, or give/sell them to someone
else
- Use washable liners
WEN has calculated that simply by using
24 nappies, laundering them in an A rated, energy efficient washing
machine at 60 oC parents can save nearly 24% global warming impact
over that suggested in the Environment Agency report (Life Cycle
Assessment of reusable and disposable nappies May 2005)*.
**Guardian 16th February 2006, Report
Commissioned by Family Circle magazine and sponsored by Maestro.
Based on potty training at 30 months.
* All Information from WEN – Women’s Environmental
Network Website |
