Nappies

Nappies on the line

What's wrong with disposables?

The first major down side to disposable nappies is the cost. As well as being relatively expensive to buy, they also cost the tax payer around 10p for every pound spent on them. Once a disposable has been used, that's it, it has to be thrown away, and on particularly messy days this can prove incredibly expensive. Disposables are also full of chemicals, many avoid exposing their babies to chemicals at all costs, with organic baby food and gentle cleaning products, shouldn't the same principle be applied to the nappies we put on our babies?

On top of this we must also consider the environmental implications of disposables. Human faeces is classified as clinical waste, yet instead of disposing of such waste down the toilet, the disposable nature of nappies has lead to many being disposed of in household waste. This has many health implications as bacteria and viruses can leak into water supplies.

Disposable nappy facts

  • It takes one full cup of crude oil to make the plastic for each disposable
    nappy.
  • It takes 4.5 trees to make the pulp used in the nappies for one baby over
    two and a half years.
  • Disposables may take 200 to 500 years to fully decompose in the ground,
    and even longer than that if they are wrapped in a nappy bag.
  • Approximately 8 million disposable nappies are thrown away each day in
    Britain alone.

Benefits of the Cloth Nappy

By using re-usable cloth nappies, most of the problems of disposables are avoided. Even taking the washing of cloth nappies into account, they still have much less of an impact on the environment by avoiding the use of harmful chemicals, and hugely decreasing the amount of waste sent to landfill. Cloth nappies can save on average between £400 and £900 a year, as well as preventing your baby from exposure to potentially harmful chemicals...... and they're a better fit!

For more information

Best Foot Forward Tel:01865 250818 Email:
[email protected]
Web:
www.bestfootforward.com

One Life Tel: 0845 601 7308 Web: www.onelifeworld.co.uk

Plush Pants Cloth Nappies Tel: 01865 408040 E-mail: [email protected] Web: www.plushpants.com

Featured action on nappies

Real Nappy Network

Members of the Real Nappy Network with their little ones

Note: The information below about this action group was correct when it was written, but may now be out of date, or the action group may no longer exist.

Who are we?

The Real Nappies group in Old Trafford started in 2006 as an action groups supported by Action for Sustainable Living (AfSL). It is aimed at educating the community especially new parents on the environmental impacts of using disposable nappies in view of the continual decrease in landfill space. It also aims to enlighten and inform parents on money saving scheme and ventures to help with child raising costs. Taking into account all the environmental factor… [more about this action group]
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