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?

I was refering to the claims pampers made about dryness stopping nappy rash which was the subject of an ASA complaint, the Bristol study then showed that dryness wasn't a factor, there was no higher incidence of nappy rash which ever system was used.

I just worry about the super absorber chemicals in disposable nappies (and san pro for that matter), I found it disturbing finding these bits of gel on my son's skin

Oh, and if you're hung up about the cotton issues (and they are significant), then as I said before, there is always hemp or bamboo, which are far, far better. In other words, you can go from 'good' to 'better'.

Not to mention the issue of untreated faeces and urine (and accompanying bacteria) leaching into water tables from landfill

Careful, vkone - has this actually happened? Am willing to stand corrected if you know of an instance.

Just to add another leg to the environmental debate, children who wear cloth nappies tend to potty train earlier than those in disposables simply because they can feel when they are wet. Better for everybody, surely
threebob - at poo everywhere - we've been there!

vkone - good point about the untreated wee and poo. Also, if a baby has been given the live polio vaccine, they pass live polio which can indeed leach into the water table.

I'm pretty sure the polio would be long dead before it got that far. It's not like it can survive for that long outside the body - it's not like anthrax.

(scienceteacher - I can imagine you going purple right now! :o )

The polio vaccine given to babies here is no longer live either.

Let's face it. If we wanted to be 100% enviromentally friend'y we'd use "elimination control" and get our babies to poo and wee into the compost heap.

Can't help thinking that untreated faeces and urine (and accompanying bacteria) would have trouble leaching into water tables. It would have to get through the non biodegradable nappy, a nappysack and probably a plastic bin bag first.

Azroc - got to say I haven't noticed that my children potty trained earlier due to being in cloth nappies. Maybe I'm just unlucky:(

I'm slightly out of touch with current vaccines as I disapprove of them, therefore don't go near them. However, I have heard from a reliable source that the polio was a problem (and that's not even touching on Guillane-Barre syndrome, but that's another subject).
Oh, and scienceteacher isn't a science teacher, as exposed somewhere on this thread.

Cloth Nappy users - DO you use sanitary towels or tampons or do you use an eco friendly alternative such as the moon cup?

Just wondering how far people will go to be eco friendly.

i use a mooncup. actually, my reasons for using one aren't necessarily entirely b/c of the environment, but b/c tampons leak on me and i HATE towels.

i also like to do outdoor sports. mooncup is much more transportable than tampons or towels.

Mooncup and cloth pads here:) Saved me a fortune and much more comfortable and nothing of mine washing up on beaches.

Have used homemade washables, currently on respite thanks to breastfeeding, am considering mooncup.

What are cloth pads?

Expat,Azroc and Juuule would you say you are generally very eco friendly?

Cloth pads are sanitary towels made from cloth and therefore washable/reusable.
I like to think I'm eco friendly - I try my best - I sense a catch coming...

Some cloth pads - \link{http://www.clothmadmummy.wahmall.co.uk/traderplus/?formaction=catdisplay&searchdata=&categoryID=1521\cloth pads}
Although there are lots of other types and sites as with the nappies:o

Generally eco friendly?? Not sure. I try to be environmentally conscious and do what I can where I can but costs do come into it.

Dros
I do have lentil-weaving tendancies. It wasn't always this way. But when I was about 20 I met a man who was into outdoor sport - hillwalking, rockclimbing, backpacking and the like. Luckily, he was a true traditionalist w/a lot of regard for the wilderness and nature in general. He was also half-German and into recycling and reuse, reduce. We moved to Denver and met up w/like-minded people, from whom I shared and learned great love for the planet and its creatures.

Part of that is repsecting yourself and others by leaving as minimal an imprint as possible - sparing the wilderness as much as possible so that it lives on for others to enjoy.

Doing things like cloth nappies, mooncups, eating as much locally grown and produced food as possible, walking lots, recyling, etc. is part of that ethos. Some people may say it doesn't make a difference, but I think, when you have millions if not billions doing this, it does!

No it's just that I live with someone who is always going on about recycling and the like and if I absently put something in the bin rather than recycle it all hell breaks out. Interestingly he doesn't see that there are ways in which he damages the environment cos it doesn't suit. For example he would NEVER use cloth nappies and he uses his car to drive to the dump to recycle. He spends hours in a shower.

SO I wonder how committed people really are to the environment if it doesn't suit. I suspect people who use cloth nappies may be more committed than most but I'm not sure, hense the question. I do what I can too but I am sure there is lot more I could do.

That's the problem with landfill really, if nappy and contents are in a non degradable bag then what happens to them, do they eventually fossilise under the presuure or something? If the bag does degrade, then where does it all go, I know they line landfill with clay to stop things leaching thro but then the methane and other gases created pose a problem (I remember a friend who smoked being told she couldn't outside her company's brand new office block as it might ignite something!).

Back to using cloth tho, one thing I have found is that I tend to view DSs nappies in the same light as his other clothes (which I also wash in a machine), so I've gotta say the whole water issue can be a red herring - it's just another whites wash

i am not commited to 'green' issues, drive a car, dont recycle much etc etc(i should do tho used to) but am committed to cloth nappies. soupy found me \link{http://www.diapersewing.com/quick_dry_aio.htm\this site} and i fancy recycling my old towels to make some nappies.

FWIW, We use cloth nappies 90% of the time* - terry squares with motherease wraps. Not sure why people shy away from using terry squares.

(1) They cost £2 each (for a quality brand), as opposed to £7+ for a shaped nappy
(2) they dry in 24 hrs on a clothes horse in winter, and in an afternoon on the line in better weather days
(3) It's really easy to learn a couple of folds, and various websites have instruction sheets to show you how. The invention of nappy nippers negates the need for fiddly safety pins.
(4) You simply adapt the folds as your child grows
(5) they double up as changing mat covers, little towels etc. or can be reused as cleaning cloths after your babies have finished using them.

• The other 10% of the time, we use nature boy & girl nappies, because they don't emit the foul smell of some of the other big brands of nappies. Why do we use some disposables? Because I found carting wet terry nappies around town a bit of a faff, so it's a compromise. I'm going to try some 'tushies' nappies which are pricey but supposed to contain none of the chemical evils of other disposables.

As for the argument that cloth nappies use too much water in washing - I think it is nonsense. The couple of times we put our newborn DS in disposables overnight we had to wash his sleepsuit, vest, and cotsheet, as the poo leaked out. With terry squares you wash the nappy, not the baby's clothes, so it's six of one and half a dozen of the other.

PS Anyone with terry nappies to get rid of may like to consider donating them to the Babybear Project (they have a website), a charity which passes them on to babies in South Africa.

Smellen, that's really useful to know about passing on terries to help others. I like that. Mind you, ours will be too threadbare by the time we've finished with them!
I like terry squares too - hell, I even like nappy pins, but have stopped using them lately through sheer laziness as I find the wrap holds the nappy in place quite well by itself. Can't get on with nippas though - perhaps this is because some of our nappies are already a little threadbare so there's nothing to grip!