foiled! Does anyone know just how degradeable eco-friendly disposables are?

[meebles]

I've been trying to persuade my DH that we should try cloth nappies, but he's convinced that using biodegradeable disposables is good enough, without any of that 'hippy sh*t' making it hard for him. I've been using the cloth during the day, but when he came home DD just managed to pee through a cloth nappy onto his leg - hence foiled! It's not done my arguments much good....
Does anyone know any facts and figures about the comparison between standard and biodegradeable nappies i.e. time to degrade totally etc. I suppose they take up exactly the same amount of landfill anyway.

No facts or figures, but pretty sure that unless you compost them yourself, they don't degrade in the time the packet states in landfil.

thing is that in landfill very little biodegrades because an anaerobic environment is created, you would really need to compost the nappies! Having said that I buy nature nappies because if nothing else not chlorine bleaching creates less pollution.

Check out Moltex nappies. We used mainly cloth, but I liked to have disposables to fall back on. I was told at the time that Nature Nappies took a long time to biodegrade, but Moltex, which were very good (can only be ordered over the internet, I think) and felt much less plasticky. Sorry - rather vague - nappies are starting to seem a long time ago now!

Don't worry, your DD will we through any type of nappy from time to time. Stick her in a crappy Pampers and see how long it takes . DD1 was totally diposable reared and we had a lot of leaks (in all directions). I cannot remember the last time DD2 (cloth bottomed) had a leaky nappy - this is probably down to us using Airflow wraps though (fab).

I agree with Islamum about the anaerobic environment in landfill. If landfill, low finances, preserving resources, etc are your main reasons for going cloth, then there is little alternative to cloth nappies. If your reason for going cloth is more to do with bleaches etc on your babies skin then biodegradeables are an alternitive.

'wee' not 'we'

ooh yes - stick her in pampers a size too big

I think that between Moltex and Tushies - one is made from better materials and the other biodegrades better - but as others have said - if you chuck something in a plastic bag in an anaerobic env then really not alot is ever going to biodegrade - ALSO more Co2 is emitted from landfill than cars - think it is 23 times more. (will check my facts on that but sure its right!)

Also not all parts of biodegradable nappies will biodegrade due to the plastic in them. Only the inner core if pulled out of the plastic outer part will biodegrade... and only then if not put in a plastic bag or landfill .....

Also it is illegal to put human poo in your compost bin (apparently)

And if he really isn't sure - get him an adult nappy to wear and see how quickly his bits heat up. The scrotum hangs 2cm below the male body to keep the testes cool for sperm production to be effective.

Moltex and Nature both have small amounts of that horrid gel - polyacrylate? and Tushies don't, but found Tushies pretty rubbish tbh.