Filling landfills or wasting water....

[robin3]

For DS2 a friend has gone 80% of way to persuading me to use the washable nappies but DP still thinks that we should concentrate on saving water this summer and this would surely create another couple of loads a week if not more.

What d'ya reckon?

Washable nappies. They can be used for more than one child and/or passed on once your child is done w/them.

A non-degradable disposable, however, will be here a long, long time after just one use.

are you in a drought type water area?

Buy bio-degrabible (sp) nappies then evryone is happy

London - worst possible place. Taken to saving bath water for garden.

It's couple of washing loads a week vs a sack full of yukky nappies a week.
cloth is also cheaper than disposable, cloth nappies don't emit that bizarre stench that wet disposables do, cloth nappies don't leave odd crystals on your baby's backside if they get too wet...

Hmmn, interesting dilemna. But, speaking as someone who knows nothing about this subject, I would guess that filling landfills is far worse than wasting water.

You could always wash the nappies by hand in the bath after you've bathed your children but I suspect that that would be taking environmental concern a step too far.

bath? shower uses less water shuld save enough to wash a few nappies!!

TBH, I dry pailed mine. I had a very eco friendly washing machine which re used its water. I washed them with other whites and pale colours. I do not actually think it incresed my loads, just made my actual loads 4 nappies bigger every day :)

a power shower can use up to 1/3 more water than a bath

keeping showers to under 5 mins is the ideal thing to do

Blimey...you guys trying to kill me with good intention?

Friend also said that there are concerns about the chemicals in disposables and the heat they generate for boys around their bits which can result in infertility. Poor DS1...probably ruined for life .

There are plenty of environmental problems with cotton nappies as well. I think to be truly safe you'd need to be nappy free. I believe some parents potty train their babies from birth?

"...chemicals in disposables and the heat they generate for boys around their bits which can result in infertility..."

Disposables generate heat??? Doubt it. Is she claiming an exothermic reaction between urine and nappy material? I dare say that sounds a bit far fetched.

I tried dry-pailing like piffle did but found that soaking in water with lavender oil/tee tree was much easier to stop the staining (bright orange poo anyone? ), and the nappies and liners went in with the whites - no more washloads than normal.

Compostable disposables and a wormery??

Am also considering this exact thing....used mostly Nature B&G to start with last time (but they leaked once dd started crawling), and am trying to find out about 'real' nappies. Probably daft question, but what is 'dry pailing'??

dry pailing is not soaking them, but putting them straight in a bucket with a good lid. actually it smells less

washable nappies, much better than saving water for the environment. I only wash mine once every three days anyhoo

and by less, I mean it doesn't smell

Thanks Cappuccino. That sounds good - and once every three days sounds good too. I've heard of nets that you put in the pail, then you can just lift the whole thing out and stick in washing machine...feeling braver...mind you, at 13 weeks pg, thats not so hard...

Did similar deliberating before ds (nearly two) born. Friend from antenatal class who works in renewable energies said evidence in favour of washables is surprisingly weak. The amount of water and electricity involved in washing (and tumble-drying) negates some of their seemingly green qualities.

That said, non-biodegradable disposables are pretty crap on the environmental front. We decided to go for the Nature Boy & Girl range (70% biodegradable; available in Boots and Waitrose) - wipes, nappy sacks and all - and have stuck with them from day 1.

On few occasions ds has worn Pampers/Tesco, he has got a sore bum (unusual for him). So the materials and chemicals in Nature's nappies must be kinder on their bums and bits too.

[perking up ears] thats interesting, Eggy...hmm.

I hate to say this (and have only recently been convinced of this myself), but using biodegradable/compostable disposables (eg Nature B&G) is only really a green option if you actually compost them. If not, then admittedly there may be less chemicals used to make them, but they will not biodegrade effectively in landfill. That said, we do use them, and don't compost them yet, but I'm planning to try very soon . . . I definitely read somewhere that a wormery was the easiest way.

eggybread there was a study a while ago about washables v disposables that said there wasn't anything in it but it was found to be flawed.. even the study authors came out and said so

they based a lot of it on a) unreliable information about cotton production and where it was produced and b) they didn't contact modern cloth nappy users but did street surveys, so they met a lot of people who 'remembered' how it used to be done with pins, boil washing, lashings of napisan etc etc

since most cloth users are concerned about the environment anyway, they are felt to choose the 'greenest' way of washing for their cloth. I know very few cloth nappy users, for example, who rely on their tumble dryer for nappy drying

so I have to say I really disagree with you

Eggy - can't agree with you and don't know why your friend would say what she did. Unless she was referring to the flawed Environment Agency report.
You might find this from Womens Environmental Network interesting reading:
\link{http://www.wen.org.uk/nappies/LCA_action.htm\WEN}

Anyone who has read the EA lifecycle report would find it laughable. Most of the cloth nappy data is "assumed" i.e. they made it up.

At the present time I can't see how cloth nappies could possibly not be the greenest option.

Sigh. Thought it sounded a bit too good to be true.

I know about composting being best with biodegradables (read Sunday papers last weekend) but in a small London garden don't think I can face wormery.

Think I'll at least get a sample package of cloth nappies and give them a go...really couldnt' have coped with them first time (too many health issues postpartum, new Mum, etc) but hopefully can this time.

I'm glad you lot have the info, I'm totally clueless here.

Oh dear. Totally trusted renewable energies friend's words on this, and clearly wrongly. She uses bloody Pampers! [bemused face]

Point taken re: landfill sites (and incinerators!) not providing right conditions for composting. We have just moved to new house with lovely big garden and a massive compost heap in the top corner, so even if I don't set my wormery up for composting ds's nappies (toilet training imminent), if we have any more little ones, I think I'll give the wormery a go.

I stand corrected. Thanks for info, ladies.

EBAB