Washable or disposable nappies?

[Tangfastica]

So this has probably been asked loads before. Which is better, economically and environmentally?
Surely running your washing machine more to clean these overrides any saving in cash? And the electricity used is bad for the environment?
Obviously disposables go to landfill or can they be incinerated? Both these ways of landfill or incineration is pretty crap for the environment though.

...and you’ve not even considered poo containment...
Washables are probably cheaper if you don’t boil wash, tumble dry and iron them. But the initial outlay can be high, it is wise to shop around for secondhand bargains.
Disposables are convenient, but I’ve found they don’t cope as well as say a Totsbots bamboozle does with a poo-splosion. Although overnight, I think a disposable may hold more wee without feeling as wet to a fussy baby.
Washable baby wipes (or indeed a good stash of flannels) are superior in every way to disposable wipes imho.

It's tricky to quantify because chances are your washing machine would be on more anyway. It's an extra 3 washes a week. As pp says, boil washing, tumbling and ironing would increase costs and environmental impact but for the majority of modern washable boil washes aren't recommended and I think ironing would destroy them...
Tumble drying is similar.
In terms of environmental stuff, disposables use electricity and raw materials in manufacturing, as do nappy sacks and wipes. If you think about the estimate that each child uses about 400 nappies, that's a lot of making. And landfill at the other end.

I've got about 25 day nappies and 7 night ones which have been in use since about week 10 and will be to potty training . If Ihave another baby then we're all setup already .

Reusable wipes are much better in every way than disposables. Mine were about 20 quid for all the wipes I'll ever need. Also better at cleaning up.
Start up costs are high but 5here are 2nd hand options and I think overall over one child costs are similar.

We buy our nappies second hand and sell them on. There's s brisk trade online and some brands really hold their value (Motherease for example). In that sense, they are much cheaper over the 2-3 years birth to potty. If you use the nappies for subsequent babies, they are cheaper still.

We use cloth for day and night, but use disposables on holiday. I am always glad to get her back into cloth. The fit and containment are great, and I think they're better on her skin.

We use cloth. Far better IMO.

The only time we used disposable at night it has leaked, resulting in needing to wash clothing, sleeping bag, cot sheet and protector. Far more washing than just a nappy.

We wash nappies every other day. They are all white, so I put on a quick 15 min pre rinse, then open machine and add all other baby stuff that’s white and can go on 60 degree long wash like cot sheets, muslins, towel. So these would need to go in a wash anyway. So it’s not many more loads per week.

We dry ours outside or inside on dryer rack, not tumble dry.