Real Nappies

Nappies make up 4% of Landfill

An estimated 600,000 nappies are used every day in Ireland. Most are tossed into household rubbish making up at least 4% of landfilled waste.  For a family with one baby half of a typical waste bin will consist of disposable nappies. An average baby will use at least 3000 disposable nappies before they reach the potty stage.

Most disposable nappies contain a mixture of paper pulp, plastics, absorbent gel granules and chemical additives in the plastics and perfumes, apart from the baby's waste. All of these chemicals and materials impact on the environment.

Reusable Nappies

A variety of well designed reusable nappies made of eg. cotton, hemp, wool, fleece are now available.  They are easy to use, very effective, good for children’s skin and are easily washed and dried.  They do not need to be pre-soaked.  Also, modern washing machines can wash cloth nappies at lower temperatures (keeping energy costs down) and still achieve high performance.

Research has shown that the overall environmental impact of disposables (including their manufacture, use and disposal) is greater than that of washables.

CHOOSING WHAT TYPE OF REUSABLE NAPPY TO CHOOSE FOR SLIGO

As Sligo is on the western sea board, we have a lot of rain!  Thus in choosing from the wide variety of nappies available, you will have to consider how easy they are to dry.  Nappies made from fleece material, or ones that come as separate wraps and inners may be much easier to dry.  Thicker ‘all in ones’ will take  longer to dry.  

A number of companies supply these products directly and many by mail order or over the internet, see below.

BIODEGRADABLE Nappies

If working full time, with a number of children in nappies, it may be difficult to use re-usable nappies all the time.  A good alternative is to purchase biodegradable nappies eg. MOLTEX, which have no chemicals, plastics etc and can even be placed in the compost bin!