Support for Disposable Nappies
There has been much debate about the impact of both cloth and disposable nappies on the environment. This article, published in the Wanganui Midweek newspaper, relates how an independent study suggests that there is no significant difference for the environment between either of these two options for parents.
Read on to learn more about how the UK government abandoned their cloth nappy policy based on these findings.
Getting into a rash over nappies
Wanganui Midweek, Page: 25
Wednesday, 11 July 2007
The announcement in the UK of a Government U-turn on their support for cloth nappies is a victory for parental choice according to the manufacturers of Huggies nappies Kimberly-Clark.
The decision follows a four-year research project at a cost of millions of pounds which found that the impact of burying disposable nappies in landfill sites was matched by the energy consumed and greenhouse gases generated by washing reusables or transporting them to laundries.
The Life Cycle Analysis was conducted by the Environment Agency and concluded that there was no significant difference between any of the environmental impacts of the disposable, home-use reusable and commercial laundry systems that were assessed.
This study has been supported under Brisbane conditions. As the Australian Consumers’ Association’s Guide to Baby Products says: “Who ’s to say what ’s more damaging? To create more solid waste? To use more water and energy?” The UK Government ’s three year real nappy campaign formed a major part of their waste minimisation programme at a reported cost of 2.3 million.
However, this appears not to include grants of around 100,000 a time paid by the UK Treasury to local councils to encourage their own real nappy promotions.
Similar local council funding schemes are now in evidence around New Zealand.
- Christchurch, Waitakere and South Taranaki.
- Gisborne have introduced payment schemes to encourage people to use cloth nappies.
- One council has budgeted $25,000 to run the scheme.
However the lesson from the UK is clear, despite significant funding the use of disposable nappies has continued to increase. Whilst parents may accept the initial cloth nappy promotion, there is little correlation with ongoing use because parents continue to value their babies’ comfort and skin health.
Considering that food waste and demolition construction waste represent almost half of waste to landfill, whilst nappies contribute around 1.9 percent, perhaps this would be a more productive area of focus and would make better use of rate payers money? In the UK, other published figures show that, the campaign was a failure reducing waste to landfill by only 22 percent of its target or less than a twentieth of one per cent of household rubbish sent to landfill each year.
Disposable nappies aim to provide parents with the best possible products while continually trying to minimize their environmental impacts.
The bulk of a disposable nappy has reduced by more than 50 percent over the past five years through improved product design. Kimberly-Clark who produce Huggies, have implemented leading edge manufacturing processes to improve sustainability and only use the waste from renewable pine plantations to make these nappies.
Could this herald the end of environmental-friendly cloth nappies?