Man said disposable nappies should be banned

SCF
That's what we do. Bambinex teddies at home, cheapo disposables out and about, and at nursery, and expensive pampers overnighty ones overnight.

it's not perfect, but every cloth one he pees on is one less in the landfill. And he does have a very cute squidgy bum in the bambinex teddies. And they dry REALLY quikly (the fleece ones) which is vital. They're practically dry coming out of the washing machine.

Oh! and motherease wraps are the biz. The bambinex ones that came with our teddies were shite .Motherease rikkis all the way.

Ahem. Never thought I was such a cloth evangelist. Did I mention the cute squidgy factor?

ok you bastards. i've just been looking at 'real' nappies online and i guess they don't look too bad and i found myself thinking well maybe i'd do combo nappying with the next baby. reusables at home and short trips, night time disposables (i'm not dealing with mess in the middle of the night) and out for whole days.

i think you got to me you buggers.

at building papier maché model - yeah, that's it of course!

It's a hairy arse thing probably. And a wanking thing. And a furtling around inside nostrils while sitting on the bog thing.

That's about all I can think of.

Do men do gross enormous poos then?

morebeta - . You should approach them to see how much they're prepared to pay for it!
DH definitely uses more loo roll than I do and it took me quite a while to work out why - but now I know why and it explains why there is a very sudden reduction in the loo roll...

I bet they already have done surveys! I used to sell Suma loo roll as one of my small businesses and in one of the large families I sold to, (four dds) the dad admitted he used most! (Well they were close friends)

Herbex I agree coloured loo paper is gross

LieIns - me and DW have a separate bathrooms and I also do the cleaning so routinely refill the loo roll dispensers. After a year of careful monitoring I have the data you are seeking. I suspect though it would be worth a fortune to loo roll manufacurers so am considering holding an informal auction.

Actually I think men might use more loo roll than women (on the occasions when they use it) - it would be an interesting survey but probably not one I would be keen to actually carry out
I guess there is less packaging on loo roll, and most people would leave their napkins to be thrown away, rather than saving them to use on their nose! It is a sign that I do not use tissues 'frivolously' for wiping things which a cloth could do. Never bought babywipes either, and use v little kitchen towel. Have had some of my kitchen cloths for about ten years and still washing and using them!
I am coming agree with the view that this is no more a feminist issue than any other aspect of parenting, and that individual women who have a partner should try to ensure they are happy with whatever division of labour suits their partnership best. Environmental issues are not always feminist issues and I don't think it would be wrong, for example, for a non-driving woman to comment on the restriction/penalising of cars driving around with no passengers, which are more likely to be driven by men. That is much more a criticism of the practice, which has an environmental impact on all of us, than it is a criticism of men.

Definitely think this is more of a feminist issue than it is an environmental one. I suspect we will see 100% biodegradable disposables long before we see nappies changed by men as normal as is currently the case for women.

I started off with reusables and ditched them quite quickly. I had twins. The washing machine was going twice a day in my house anyway. Coping with more laundry on top of that would have been over-burdensome.

I did feel guilty about the landfill aspect, but not enough to change back to reusables. For the first four months I never managed to get more than 45 mins of sleep in one go due to the demands of breast-feeding, expressing, winding, changing, etc. No way was I sacrificing that much-needed sleep! If I had, I might have saved the environment a bit but the social cost would have been huge - I'd have collapsed and ended up with my children in care.

"And I have never bought a box/pack of tissues - I use the loo roll or save napkins from cafes"

Is there that much difference environmentally?

As has already been pointed out, lots of trees are cut down to make loo roll, a massive percentage of what is sold, isn't unbleached, and because men use it as much as women do, no-one even thinks to call for it to be banned. Much less call for much more polluting things, like cars, to be banned.

Actually I do think that bleached and coloured loo roll should be banned, it's so vulgar. [Margot Leadbetter emoticon]

I have used cloth nappies on DS since he was born. When he was around 18mo, I started using disposables at night because the clothies started leaking and changing him would wake him up too much (he wakes very easily). He is still in night disposables, and if we go away for a few days, he goes in disposables as well rather than lug an airtight nappy bucket around with us. We use the Nature Babycare ones - might be more expensive but they are mostly biodegradable so I feel less guilty; and they have fewer chemicals in them so better for DS's gonads.

He wears a cloth nappy during the day - no longer poos in it, insists on pooing on the loo - but wees in it. I don't change it every time, he gets a clean nappy in the morning and then maybe one more change in the day, depending. He doesn't care and is currently refusing to come out of nappies (mildly irritating but no point pushing him) and his skin is fine and peachy.

So, because he doesn't need changing as much as he used to, the nappies only get washed once a week, maybe 10 days (I love my nappy bucket). In the early days, I had to do a load every day, every 2 days max but it's gradually diminished.

The clothies he has now are the same as the ones he was using from Day 1. They get napisaned and washed at 70deg C (I bought a washing machine that does variable temp - love it!) using a non-bio powder.

I know it sounds a touch contrary but it's a fine balance between trying to look after both DS and the environment!

HerBex unbleached recycled toilet roll is far less damaging to the environment than disposable nappies. And I do train my children to use a lot less than I have seen other children use!
And I have never bought a box/pack of tissues - I use the loo roll or save napkins from cafes.
amothersplace ditto re: 40 degree wash, no tumble dryer in four years of cloth nappy use.

Hmm... I don't think it is only AP that clashes with feminism/female autonomy etc, but all parenting. In our society, as soon as you have a child, unless you work hard for it not to, the onus falls on the mother. In fact, sometimes the AP course of thing (well, co-sleeping/bf part anyway) is to the mother's benefit, in that it actually lessens her workload. It is often the male partner who is anti-bed-sharing/pressuring mum to stop bf. Or at least that is what I've gathered from the posts on the bf/ff board on here.

Well, bog roll and tissue are biodegradable, but a hell of a lot of trees are chopped down to make an item that is essentially just thrown away - plus all the fuel used to manufacture and transport them.

If we're saying disposable nappies have enough of an impact on the environment to consider banning them (as the OP's friend wishes to decree), then it does seem to be inconsistent to not also say that we should only be using re-usable, washable loo roll, and handkerchiefs...

saf I'm someone who uses reusables but barely changed a nappy for the first six months and still doesn't if DH is in the house [smuggity smug emoticon]. The input/output deal is still holding good. And it bloody well should be, since I'm the one getting up in the night with DS cos of the magic power of boob to get him back to sleep. That's also why I get the weekend lie-ins while the household males watch cartoons and rub cereal into the carpet have breakfast.

I don't engage with the identity politics of a lot of attachment parenting stuff, as it makes my blood boil. I do tend to think that when someone is in cloth nappies and into breastfeeding and blw and other such things, the onus is often on the mum to do all of it. Do you ever read the blog Blue Milk? Aussie feminist, fab writer - and she looks hard at how attachment parenting clashes with feminism/ female autonomy if you're not working to avoid that clash. We're not "proper" attachment parents (I went back to work when DS was 4 weeks old, ffs) but I am still breastfeeding with no plans to stop, we do use cloth, and we do BLW and blah blah blah.

I think there is some smug martyry stuff around, but for us the cloth thing was about the money. And we've only been using them LOTS in the last few weeks since we moved, and we've definitely saved a packet. Machine wash at 40c with other clothes, line dry. But as I said upthread- only cos it's easier now than it was before. I doubt I would have done it if I was bringing him up alone. MY energy is also a precious resource!

In your view, what are the rough roles of a SAH parent and their working partner, goodasgold?

Also, can't say I know of anyone passionately arguing over the use of the local greengrocer!

But once number 4 turned 3 i ge.t id done enough. She is an environmental disaster anyhow!

Amotherplace, i washed nappies at 40 and hung them on the line. They were terry squares. Probably the cheapest method and they did 4 kids

SAF I'm a single parent using reusables, all of which are second hand and 75% of them were from freecycle. i bought the few others on nappy tree and locally and paid no more than £2.00 per nappy/wrap.

It's cheaper for me, less time consuming and I want to contribute as little as possible to the mountain of nappies at the dumps.

anotherplace see research on the first page and the link to see how much less damage to the environment reusables are. It also takes into consideration all the queries you have.

Are disposables that much more detriminental to the environment, when you take into account the detergent, boiling water and tumble dryer use necessary to make the use of cloth nappies vaguely bearable?

So do those who think disposables should either be banned or hiked in price as luxury goods, also think we should do the same for bog-roll and tissues?

Because if not, your position is inconsistent...