Interesting one this.

Obviously a lot of people these days rely on disposable nappies (Pampers, etc). However, it is well known how environmentally unfriendly these things are. Since the invention of the disposable back in the 70's, these things have been filling up our landfill sites at quite a rate.

In fact, apparently these things take hundreds of years to break down, so EVERY disposable nappy ever produced still exists in landfill

- In Edinburgh, 5% of all household waste is disposable nappies.
- In households with one baby, disposable nappies fill 50% of the weekly bin.
- One years worth of disposable nappies fills 40 black plastic sacks or 12 wheelie bins.
- Production costs of disposables are VERY high

So, the alternative is using traditional reuseable terry towelling nappies but designed in a way these days to be more user friendly (poppers, velcro, etc). These can be combined with disposable (biodegradable of course!) liners if necessary.

On the face of it, it seems an easy choice, but obviously involves an extra bit of effort & perserverance. However, a lot of people I have spoken to seem to try it, then give up as "disposables" are too easy

Be interested to hear from the parents on here what they think. I'm ashamed of all the waste that goes with disposables, along with the fact that man has survived up until 30 years ago without them (and now we have even easier home laundry options to make reuseables SO much less work than 50 years ago).

So, what are the reasons you stick with disposables and why?

 

There was nothing my missus liked better than a washing line full of "Zorbit's" finest. Paid £1.00 each as they made them near where I worked, and I'm still using them today as washable hand wipers!!!
And that's after twenty odd years ago!!! Try that with a Pamper.
dave

 

I find disposables more comfortable on my legs!!

Interesting info.

Slightly of track, but plastic shopping bags are just as bad. They too take 50+ years to biograde yet I have not seen anywhere to recycle them?

I do recycle what I can, plastics, paper, glass etc and have done for over 5 years now. (I like to think that I'm doing my bit!)

 

Yes, off topic, but the supermarket plastic bags are a waste. In Germany, you have to pay for plastic bags at the checkout, hence people re-use & bring their own. The bags you can buy are very sturdy, but cost about 10 cents.

In Eire, they have recently instigated a tax on supermarket bags, with the resultant 90%+ drop in bag take-up. Seems a winner all round. Supermarkets don't have to supply free bags, there's less waste, and they can also sell decent reusable bags at the checkout for profit.

Hopefully this idea could be applied in the UK soon too.

We have found that the big blue bags with yellow handles that you get at Ikea are useful for the weekly shop. Two of them fit in the trolley fine, and can be lifted into the car no problem.

 

Cant be arsed with anything other than disposable!

If they were to make disposable liners then perhaps

 

They do....

 

i was in favour of the idea of re-usable nappies - however, when reality struck, it just seemed like the last thing we needed to think about, so we have ended up using disposables so far.

 

"They do...."

Well I've never seen them

 

.... but then I've never been looking for them. If they are just as convenient then who knows I might try them on the wee one when he emerges in September

 

Yes, that's one of the negatives - it requires an upfront investment of perhaps £300 for a plentiful supply of reuseables.

Saying that, it seems in the first year, you're looking at 5000 nappies in total? Is that not about £800 of disposables????

 

I've gotta go out and wait for a washing machine to be delivered to one of the flats, but I'll post a GREAT link later on....

 

we have twins so no chance of messing around with reuseables. however, a cousin just had a little boy and they harped on about these reuseables before birth, went on about some £20 cash offer/grant type thing. anyhow they used the reuseables for 3 weeks before giving up. oh and according to those stats our rubbish would be 50% for one child sowhat % for twins? 75%? utter rubbish (if you will pardon the pun)

 

They also charge the earth in Donegal to have refuse taken away - something like 5 Euro per black plastic sac Obviously my parents recycle as much as they can...

 

I or should i say we used terry towels on my little boy when he needed them, the main reason being he was allegeric to those disposables, may i also add that using the terrys his skin is also a lot better, it took a little getting used to them, I personally (if i do have another doubt it though) would use the reusables

2ps

sti-04!!

 

nowadays u can go to lidl or aldi and get them so cheap , cheaper than 10 reusable ones

 

Arent you MUCH more likely to get rashes with non disposables? The nappy can be sodden, but the skin is dry with our disposables - my mum was exrtremely jealous as apparently I often had nappy rash back in the ole days - however my 8 month old has never had any using disposables...

D

 

[light hearted mode]

Not implying anything and I'm sure this is not the case, but maybe if one is recycles NOTHING, you may have a huge pile of rubbish anyway? Hehehe

[/light hearted mode]

Seriously, I know people who still just shove glass bottles/paper etc in their normal bin. It's pretty easy to recycle both these things these days.

Out of interest, do all the nappies you use get put in your bin? Obviously if you're out & about, you'd chuck them in bins in other places.

Fair play to you though - your washing machine would be on all the time with twins!!

 

Another interesting link from that Boots site :

http://www.boots.com/features/featur...wblinktype=SMA

 

Moses - nowadays u can go to lidl or aldi and get them so cheap , cheaper than 10 reusable ones

Yeah but cheap nappies hold about 2ml of **** compared to 2L with Pampers etc

 

They are actually making huge inroads into the manufacture of economically viable biodegradeable polymers these days. I reckon in 10 years there should be no excuse not to manufacture all high turnover disposable goods out of biodegradeable plastics, and indeed it will probably be legislated by then too.

 

Absolutely.
A piece of cotton will always be more environmentally friendly though.

 

imlach,

just out of curiousity are you are a parent and do you have to change nappies? Believe me when faced with number twos that require asbestos gloves and a gas mask you need to be like the SAS, in and out in the shortest possible time Anything that adds complexity to the operation is a no-no in my book!

Gary

 

I appreciate that baby poo is not the nicest of substances to deal with, but how did people cope up until 30 years ago (a short time in our evolutionary scale). Has it got mysteriously smellier or dirtier in the last 2 decades?

A lot of people didn't even have automatic washing machines in those days where a door can be shut on them until they're clean again (err...the nappy, not the baba!).

 

weve used them on our two girls,one of which is still in them
for us they have been great,we had them of a company called "nappies 4 real",they would come and collect them every week,take them away,wash them then bring them back,you could have as many as you like for £8 a week.
we used to keep a couple back every week untill we had enough to last us
and now we just wash them ourselfs,costs us nowt

 

We tried the reusable ones on our son but found they never quite fitted right and if they did then the velcro on the wrap rubbed against his legs. Having spent a lot of money on the wraps we werent in the mood to keep paying more for ones that might fit so we use disposables.

My brother and his wife used reusable ones on their child and her nappy rash was just terrible so that would also put us off if we thought about trying them again.

JB
www.mkivsupra.net/bbs

 

We will be using re-usables. They have improved since I was young and I didn;t get nappy rash. My wife is also a midwife so she is well aware of the pros and cons.

There is no reason why re-usables shouldn't be just as good as disposables and as easy to use, and they are cheaper!

Its down to practise alledgedly!

 

i've found that at my age i can now just about make it to the bathroom without needing either type ?