to be sick of recycling?

[Umleila]

It seems to me recycyling actually means more unpaid work for mothers. I'm sick of washing and crushing cans, folding cardboard, swilling out bottles and then staggering out with the box and bags for collection. Why won't governments just force companies to use less packaging in the first place? As it is we mums are just expected to clear up capitalism's rubbish.

could say the same about chucking a load of nappies in the washing machine and pressing "on" . Its hardly taxing. Modern cloth systems don't need pre-soaking - solids can get flushed with biodegradable paper liners (and just fall off fleece liners). For me it means less shopping and lugging and loading the buggy with packs of disposables! - running up to boots cause we're running out took more of my time than shoving on a wash.

Its your choice of course bossyboop I just think there are interesting comparisons between the arguements against recycling and the arguements against cloth - i.e. its not environmentally friendly so why bother. People seem dissillusioned with recycling because they are dissapointed that its not completely "green", which its not supposed to be, reducing and reusing are the green options, recycling is just an alternative to landfill (because landfill is just less and less of an option - end of!!) and NIMBYs don't want the other alternative (incineration)

Likewise cloth - it uses electricity and water so its not environmentally friendly so why bother?.

Its about choosing the lesser evil is why. And like it or not, you might as well get used to recycling because the option of landfill WILL be taken away from you

I think the area where cloth nappies will always lose out is that although they save you money long term its the initial outlay upfront to get all the stuff you need, bearing in mind a trial pack is about £50, when i priced it up 3 years ago it was going to cost hundreds to get several nappies in several sizes, liners etc Lets face it, i wouldnt put the washer on for a couple so would need a days worth at least (where do you store the stinky things till you wash them?) So if you have a days worth in the machine you need another days worth while they are drying. Detergent is very expensive and if i have a days worth of nappies to do every day thats an extra 7 loads of washing a week that i have to pay for and extra detergent which for arguments sake could be an additional £10 a month on top plus the baby wipes you still need anyway. Then dd grows out of that size and you need another batch in a different size. I saw a pack of 5 disposable nappies for £72 so having a days worth in the wash and a days worth dry ready to use, you would need 3 packs of these so £216 and they would last how many weeks...plus wipes and liner costs and detergent costs and electricity costs and water costs if you are on a metre...???? Or just pay £18 for a couple of boxes of nappies once a fortnight...????

So I put this forward as an idea...I did seriously consider reuseables but after looking into costs it was something i couldnt afford to do so should the government not say that these companies have to make their reuseables more affordable so that people will use them.....!

to address a few of your issues:

I only wash them every other day (and wash with other stuff then). I Keep them in a lidded bucket, a wet bag works just as well.
You can get adjustable birth to potty nappies for as little as £5 each (all in one so dont need wraps) so you dont HAVE to keep buying different sizes.
You can buy nappies second hand for even less than that
You can make liners out of old fleece blankets

There are PLEANTY of cheap cloth nappies available as it is, why should the government force all companies to make them cheaply (which would mean in china or malaysia!) - we have CHOICE which is a good thing. You don't have to CHOOSE to spend as much as you are quoting. Some people like to have the choice of getting ones that are manufactured in the UK for environmental reasons so choose to pay a little more for them.

as for newborns, I was doing pooey washes with a newborn (in disposables) anyway because his disposables always leaked and if they didn't he'd thrown up on himself anyway so adding a few nappies to that load wouldn't actually have been any extra work or effort or washes

you DON'T do 7 nappy washes a week and you DON'T spend £216 every few weeks, in fact you don't even have to spend that for a whole birth to potty system
Your calculations are WAAAAAAY out

anyway there is a nappy section if you'd like to continue this as we've gone a bit OT

we..???? I was enjoying watching you go ott by yourself but i think i shall go amuse myself somewhere else now coz there were far too many things there that made me feel queasy!

Hello,

I am a freelance journalist doing a piece for the independent on sunday about recycling. I am looking for someone with access to recycling facilities who chooses not to use them.

If this sounds like you and you would be willing to be interviewed for a very short piece, please get in touch at [email protected]

Thanks!