CPRNN: Environment

One of the largest single contributors to household waste is the disposal of nappies:

8 million disposable nappies are thrown away every day in Britain.

That's about a million tonnes a year, or 4% of all domestic waste. Using real nappies rather than disposables significantly reduces the amount of waste going to landfill sites.

Studies suggest that the plastics in disposable nappies may take up to five hundred years to break down. With landfill sites filling up rapidly and each baby getting through approximately 5000 nappies before potty training, the cost of nappy disposal in the UK is around £40million per year.

Of course, there is an environmental impact in washing nappies - the additional use of detergents, water and electricity. However, using real nappies puts you in control: the only way you can reduce the impact of disposable nappy is to use fewer of them - probably not a good idea!. If you use real nappies you can decide which temperature to wash them at, whether to line or tumble dry them, even whether to iron them. And if they are used again on second or subsequent children, their impact is even less.

An 'environmental footprint analysis' found that the overall environmental impact of disposable nappies is more than two and a half times that of real nappies washed by a nappy laundry. (Source: Best Foot Forward).

An 'environmental footprint analysis' (Source: Best Foot Forward).

Environmental impact of disposable nappies.

Ultimately consumers will make up their own minds about which costs they wish to minimise. But increased use of real nappies would reduce waste costs of nappy disposal for local authorities, money which could be better spent on improving facilities for children, families and communities.

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