Warwickshire cottons on to cotton nappies
One in ten babies in Warwickshire are now sporting environmentally friendly cotton nappies.
And Warwickshire Waste Partnership is urging more parents to consider cotton nappies. Over the past three years more than 1,200 parents have chosen to use cotton nappies, approximately one tenth of all new babies born across the county.
The waste partnership believes modern re-usable nappies offer parents more scope to save money (up to £1,000 for the first baby) as well as reducing waste.
A baby would use 5,000 disposable nappies from birth to potty, meaning that 22.5 million nappies in Warwickshire would be landfilled each year, if all the parents used disposal nappies.
However, thanks to the Cotton on to Cotton Nappies campaign in Warwickshire more than six million nappies have already been prevented from going to landfill.
Under the waste partnership scheme, parents who sign up to use cotton nappies and buy at least £50 of cotton nappies receive a £25 refund from Warwickshire County Council.
With 1200 parents (representing 10 per cent of parents) now using cotton nappies the partnership is seeing the project a success.
Cllr Martin Heatley, Portfolio Holder for Environment, and chair of the Waste Partnership says: “It’s a huge success in the county to see ten per cent of our parents now using cotton nappies on their babies.
“We really want our residents to have choice. We believe that using cotton nappies saves our residents money, both in the short term and long term when they have more children. Before the waste partnership started its cotton nappy campaign, very few new parents knew about the modern alternative to disposable ones.
“There are a number of reasons for this, the perception that reusable nappies are the ‘old-fashioned’ terry squares; a lack of willingness to launder used nappies; the belief that disposables are more convenient and must be better; the belief that alternatives must be more costly; and the initial investment in alternatives, compared with the ‘hidden’ weekly spend on disposables. So give them a go, and ‘cotton on to cotton nappies’.”
-Three billion nappies are thrown away every year in the UK, and are responsible for approximately two and half per cent of household waste. Nappies make up 50 per cent of the waste from a household with just one baby, so families can cut their waste in half by using real nappies.
-Parents can save £500 to £1000 on the cost of keeping a baby in nappies. You can kit out your baby in real nappies for under £70. This includes all the nappies and waterproof covers you will need for the whole of your baby’s nappy-wearing life. The same amount of money will only buy your baby’s first ten to 12 weeks of disposables. Even taking into account the total cost of laundering nappies at home (about £33 a year) the savings are still considerable.
-Disposable nappies are made of superabsorbent chemicals, paper pulp and plastics, while real nappies are manufactured using natural fabrics. If you want the best solution, free of pesticides and other synthetic chemicals, organic cotton-and-hemp nappies and organic wool waterproof overpants are available at reasonable cost.
-Not only does using cotton nappies save money, reduce waste, but they also boost the economy by creating new local jobs. While many parents are happy to launder their own nappies at home, others are attracted by the convenience offered by a nappy laundry service. New jobs are also created as local nappy agencies are established to distribute the fantastic range of real nappies for home laundry and to provide a support service.