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You probably won't realise it, but there has been a bit of a debate raging in recent years regarding the use of disposable nappies versus the washable cloth variety. Dealing with disposable nappy waste costs individual health authorities hundreds of thousands of pounds a year – which probably goes some way to explaining the government's waste minimisation programme's target to convert an additional 155,000 households to cloth nappies, which was scheduled to finish by April 2006 (www.wrap.org.uk). In May 2005, however, The Environment Agency published their report on the environmental impact of different nappy systems (disposable versus washable cloth) and came to the conclusion that there was little difference between them. The Women's Environmental Network (WEN), who actively promote the benefits of washable cloth nappies, believe that the report is flawed and is based on unreliable data.
Almost 3 billion disposable nappies are thrown away in Britain every year. That's almost 8 million EVERY DAY! More than 90% of disposables will end up in landfill – since Britain is very quickly running out of landfill, more and more disposables will end up being incinerated.
Conventional disposable nappies are mainly produced from wood pulp. Rising demand for wood pulp is beginning to threaten ancient native woodland in Canada, Scandinavia and the Baltic States, where they are being replaced with monoculture plantations – some of which will be managed using pesticides and fertilisers. In addition, mature trees that make up ancient native woodland absorb more carbon dioxide than young, farmed trees. The wood pulp that makes up conventional disposables may also be bleached, leading to further environmental pollution.
By the time a baby is potty trained, he/she could have used between 4,000 – 6,000 disposable nappies. Which amounts to a lot of delivery lorries using petrol and a lot of excess packaging which is usually not recyclable.
In addition to wood pulp, conventional disposables also contain a significant amount of various types of plastic, meaning that they are only 80% biodegradable. Conventional disposables will also contain absorbent gel granules and artificial perfumes – these could contain any number of synthetic chemicals which may be irritating against a baby's delicate skin, not to mention possible health risks from ingredients that may not be listed by manufacturers.
We appreciate that disposable nappies may be the more convenient option, especially when traveling away from home – if you are going to use disposables, look out for the more eco friendly brands – these tend to be unbleached, use less chemicals in their production and will contain less plastic, so will be more readily biodegradable than conventional disposables.
Despite the fact that cloth nappies will have an impact on the environment due to the fact that they have to be washed, we believe that they are a better option for the environment and for health reasons than disposable nappies. WEN has calculated that if cloth nappies are washed to manufacturers' instructions in an energy efficient washing machine, they contribute 24% less to global warming than using disposables. In addition, they do not create waste. They contain no plastics, synthetic gels, perfumes or chemical additives.
If washed at home, cloth nappies are also the more economic option – saving parents around £500 over disposable nappies, even taking into account laundry costs. In addition, they can be reused for more than one child, making them even more economical and saving environmental impact still further.
We would of course, recommend cloth nappies made from natural fibres such as cotton, wool or hemp, and would always recommend organically grown fibres over conventionally produced fibres, particularly for cotton since it is the most highly sprayed crop in the world.
