Real Nappies aren't worth the hassle??

[Magscat]

This was on the BBC news this morning.

As a cotton nappy devotee I can't believe they are saying that disposables are not much worse than cotton - just doesn't make sense.

Any other thoughts

[Ameriscot2005]

Surely flat nappies are going to be easier on the environment than shaped ones?

[flum]

dop, its the govt funded isn't it . clearly not concentrating

[Ameriscot2005]

SP, commercial laundries wash at higher temperatures, use harsher chemicals and there is the fuel required to truck the nappies back and forth. The only saving for a commercial laundry is that they can wash huge loads, and get the full lifespan out of their nappies.

[throckenholt]

apparently in 2001 37% of sales of cloth nappies were terries - bet that is not the case now.

Also what about all of us who reuse second hand nappies ?

Also says you hve 4 wraps per 10 nappies - not in my house and I thought I had more wraps than recommended !

Also are 98.2 % of 37 month old babies really not wearing nappies at all ?

[MrsDoolittle]

"I don't see any motivations for a government dept to design wishy-washy research, when you would think that given the prevailing opinions about cloth and concerns about landfill volumes."

Er and they do all all the time - gives people jobs!

Did someone mention the Iraq dossier?

[tarantula]

Anohter point is that they have only considered COTTON nappies. I know that most people do have cotton nappies but hemp is becoming increasing popular and has a much lower effect on the environment in the production stage and this is perhaps something that the EA/Councils should be promoting.

[morningpaper]

Of course cloth nappies haven't been liked to possible infertility problems in men due to the fact that they are hotter than cloth nappies.

And there are chemicals in disposables which some people mght not want next to their newborn's skin 24 hours a day or the first 2 years of their lives...

[hub2dee]

LOL, yes someone has.

Hey, dig page 46:

"76 per cent of supermarket customers drive to the supermarket. The majority of shoppers, 65 per cent, travel up to ten minutes and the average ?shop? costs £44.31 (Competition Commission, 2000). If we assume this journey is travelled at a speed of 30 mph, this equates to a journey of five miles each way. Assuming a use figure of 4.16 nappies per day and 12.7 pence per nappy (WEN, 2004), this would equate to an 8.3 per cent allocation of the calculated road transport distance per ?shop? based on cost. Assuming a once weekly shop, over the 2.5 years the child is in nappies thcar travel allocated to the purchasing of nappies equates to 108.5 miles (174.6 km). "

Blimey, someone must have done a lot of scratchy head.

[acnebride]

PFP - I bought 24 Bumbles and 4 small size MotherEase Wraps, and did find that he grew out of the Bumbles pretty quickly (3 months?) I then shifted over to MEOS, which I could have used from the start, and bought 24 of them plus 5 middle size wraps. This is more than the minimum you need but since I do have the cash it makes life easier. He is still in the middle size wraps at 16 months and I will expect to buy large size wraps at some point. If he grows out of the MEOS I will probably try to potty train him!

Total cost of that lot about 350 (guess) but it would have been a lot cheaper without buying the Bumbles first. I fully intend to sell all this and/or use them for another kid - I think that's the only way to make this kind of expensive cloth nappies worthwhile - terries a lot cheaper.

I stick on a nappies wash with other whites about every 2 - 3 days, usually with a pre-rinse. I do sometimes tumble dry but will probably stop after this report unless it's raining. They line dry pretty quickly.

[throckenholt]

last comment - apparently all cloth nappies soak in a sanitiser, and half us a softener when washing, and most use flushable liners.

10 % iron their nappies

[beatie]

Disposable plates and cups for me from now on too. Anyone know where I can buy disposable bedding?

Are we really expected to buy into the argument that it is better environmentally to use disposable products than to wash and re-use products? If that argument is applied to nappies, it HAS to be applied to all other washable products too.

[tarantula]

IRONING nappies???????? Even my mum never did that....At least I dont think so

[hub2dee]

I think throck's comment is fromp.61, reproduced here in all its glory to be flamed:

"Children up to 2.5 yrs, who are in nappies, use an average of 6.1 nappies per day, of which 2.3 will contain bowel movements (Environment Agency, 2004). We have assumed that, for every change, 50 per cent of the liners are flushed down the toilet and 50 per cent are disposed of in the household bin (there was an equal split between flushable and non flushable liner use). The Environment Agency surveys showed that 86 per cent of parents use liners in tandem with nappies. Used nappies are soaked in a sanitising solution. Based on the percentage of people soaking, the number of nappies owned and the change frequency we have assumed that nappy washing takes place every two days. "

I've re-read this a few times. I think it's got a few bits one could pick at.

[throckenholt]

final final comment (for now)

look at the last page - not much reserach into the amount of excreta produced by children - obviuosly they never asked parents

[throckenholt]

oops - lousy typing - sorry !

[tarantula]

I could certainly pick that one to bits h2d. didnt think that many people soaked their nappies any more let alone in 'sanitising solution'. The few I know who soak just adda drop or two of teatree oil.

[hub2dee]

Disposable partners ? Use 'em for 2.5 years then chuck 'em and get a newer model ?

[MrsDoolittle]

acnebride - don't you mean bimbles. Bumbles are onesize. Dd is still wearing them at 13 months.

Right, am definately going now. Just received a stern e-mail from dh. Must get off MN!!

[hub2dee]

Yes, and 50:50 flushable / non flushable didn't account for reusable liners.

This is probably important for this study as if you look at the cost table, nappy cost of £90.25 over the period was just over the cost of liners for the period £88.31.

I get the impression this must have been a foul piece of researsh to work on.

(no pun intended).

[Ameriscot2005]

I would have loved to have worked on this type of research. I have been involved in a couple of lifecycle analyses and really loved getting into the details.

Saddo for sure!

[hub2dee]

Really must get a life.



p.63 looks at % of washes at different temp:

"% wash 90° C ? nappy 32.1 %
% wash 60° C ? nappy 35.7 %
% wash 40° C ? nappy 17.9 %"

(I've edited out the lowest / rarest temps and one unpopular temp).

I don't think one in three washes would be at 90 degrees.... (would probably damage a fair number of modern fleece designs !)

[andif]

I used cloth nappies with ds2 as much for HIS wellbeing as the environment.

It just shows that you can justify anything with statistics (and who was it said, 'there are lies, damn lies and statistics...?!)

Maybe the report will help raise awareness amongst cloth users of washing and drying them in an environmentally friendly way - not just feeling smug for not using disposables, then using tumble dryer all day long...

Can't believe the number of people who don't even have a washing line these days and even use tumble dryer when 25C outside!!

[Ameriscot2005]

Surely those wash temp % are based on their consumer research? What's there not to believe?

[hub2dee]

OMG Ameriscot !

What an admission, LOL.

Although the best thing is that they clearly did do a very good job at trying to be all encompassing and trying to be as pernickety as they could in terms of considering as many variables as they possibly could to reach their conclusions....

(Actually haven't found their conclusions yet).

Much as I love research, I think this would have made my head and Excel spreadsheet implode.



The other nice point is that future research in this area can use this as a good starting point as an exampel of the vast range of variables to consider.