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On the environment...
They call them disposable nappies... Never was a product so inappropriately named! You can't flush or compost them, they fill up landfills and remain there for up to 500 years. It's a frightening fact that every 'disposable' nappy that has ever been used is still sitting in a landfill somewhere. Is this the legacy we want to pass on to our children?
Britain throws away 8 million nappies a day. That is 3 billion a year! They make up 4% of all the UKs household rubbish - and account for 50% of the rubbish in a one baby family!
And did you know that 5 million trees are felled each year just to keep UK babies in disposable nappies?
Here are some facts - single use, disposable nappies use:
3.5 times more energy than cloth nappies
8 times more non-renewable sources
60 times more solid waste
On top of that, the raw sewage that leaks from the disposable nappies that sit in landfills can contain potentially harmful viruses and may contaminate groundwater and soil.
On your baby's health...
A study conducted at Kiel University in Germany in 2000 showed that the temperature inside disposable nappies was up to 5 deg. centigrade higher than in cloth nappies. It was suggested that for boys particularly, this could endanger future fertility as the semen-producing function is developed in the first 2 years of life, and is dependent on the testicular region being kept reasonably cool.
The chemical which makes disposable nappies so efficient is called sodium polyacrylate. This is a super-absorbent powder which, when it becomes wet, swells into a gel. You can sometimes see clear crystals of sodium polyacrylate on your baby's bottom when you change a nappy. There are many doubts over the safety of sodium polyacrylate: not least amongst which is its creation of an illusion of dryness which could encourage the nappy (and its contents) to be left in place for longer than advisable, in conditions which are bacterially ideal for the growth of infection.
Other health concerns around disposable nappies include the fact that the wood pulp used in them is bleached using dioxins which are highly toxic chemicals known to cause liver damage, immune system suppression and genetic damage in animal studies.
On your pocket...
For every £1 spent on disposables, it costs the taxpayer 10p to dispose of them! The total national cost of this is £40 million a year.
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Disposables come with a birth to potty price tag of up to £1200, that is based on average nappy use being 2.5 years. Even when laundry costs are factored in, a cloth nappy system will cost you approximately £400 from birth to potty. That's a saving of up to £800!!! These savings are also increased when you use the same nappies on a second or even third child.
There are so many reasons that cloth nappies are a better option for your baby, not least that most washable nappy parents find that they actually PERFORM better than disposables too!
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