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Cloth nappies: The Today Programme
There's yet another study showing that cloth nappies are no better for the environment than disposables. And yet again, the sample size for cloth nappies is about a tenth the size of the disposable users. Alarmingly, within that sample, they only used terry nappy users, which was a tenth of that again - so while they used 2,000 disposable users, they used only 32 terry nappy users for most of the survey.
They keep talking about "the energy used to wash and dry the nappies" but I know no-one who habitually tumble-dries cloth nappies, especially terries, because it takes too bloody long. Most people line-dry them whereever possible, and many people hang them in the house on radiators or similar during the winter.
They mention the energy used transporting the cotton to manufacture the cloth nappies, but not the energy used to drive the petrol-guzzling car to the shop every week or fortnight to buy new disposables.
The study only covered first-child environment costs, ignoring the fact that cloth nappies can be reused by second or subsequent children.
It assumed washing at 90 degrees C which isn't reocmmended by any of the re-usable nappies I've seen; 60C is the usual. And it assumed that you soak your nappies in a strong bleach solution prior to washing them. That's a bit crazy. Most people dry-pail because it's less hassle.
And there was no mention of the lock-away core in the centre of disposables, the bit that gives off that weird sickly smell when it's wet, the bit that gives nappy rash to Linnea as soon as she uses a disposable.
Unless they were only studying eco-friendly disposables, the biodegradable ones, because they are actually not half bad and I can see how they'd be environmentally comparable to cloth nappies regularly bleached and washed at 90 degrees and tumble-dried. We use them ourselves with no qualms whatsoever.
I could also rant about the habit many folks have of encasing their plastic-coated raw-sewage-containing disposable nappies in scented plastic nappy bags before putting the nappy bag in a plastic bin-liner and sending the whole lot to landfill. But I won't. I'll just, you know, mention it. Because cloth nappy users send all the sewage to the sewage treatment systems. Not plastic-encased in a landfill.
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I assume with the "driving to the shops once a fortnight for more nappies" was ignored as they'd assume people would just buy them along with their normal shopping.
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The study also missed out the long-life of cotton nappies, as well as all the flaws
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It (of course) comes to a more measured conclusion than the press coverage.
More measured, yes.
Um, and it doesn't address the possibility of using second-hand reusables, which a lot of people do even for the first child.
And it doesn't address the impact of disposable nappy domestic storage, such as nappy wrappers and nappy bins with plastic nappy sacks.
It does assume that all reusable nappies are bleached before every wash, though.
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of course i wouldn't want to swim in a septic tank; i don't want to kill myself (there's very little oxygen down there, nevermind the methane, hydrogen sulfide, carbon dioxide, and other life-threatening gases :). what does that have to do with anything? the septic tank is the wastewater treatment system that sits between our house and the groundwater; our sewage does not go straight into the environment, it goes into the septic tank in which bacteria clean it up. we take good care of our septic tank, and are pretty careful what we flush down the drain. i use very little bleach, no germicidal cleaners, etc. i'm ecstatic about the new melamine sponges, because now i can clean a whole lot of things with just water.
lots of household chemicals are unsafe for septic tanks because they kill off said friendly little bacteria; if something is safe for them, it's usually not the very worst thing one could toss straight into the sea either. i mean, considering that lots of people don't use pure elbow grease in cleaning their toilets, i wouldn't direct my ire at this particular product. i rather like the idea of them; i despise the regular brushes because they're horrifically unhygienic. i am not a germ freak by any means, but i draw the line at bits of human feces sitting around in my bathroom for my cats to rub against.
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I haven't had a chance to read the report yet but it sounds pretty ridiculous :/
We dry pail, use a tiny amount of washing powder and have never washed at 90 degrees.
The smell of wee in disposibles is revolting, isn't it?!
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not just wee!
When we are at parent and baby groups, it is quite obvious when a child in a disposable has filled its nappy. I can rarely tell that Rhiannon has filled hers without actually having a look.
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We could tell with Rhiannon's (male) cousin Alexander, it was very obvious with Rohan on Saturday at the library, Charlie at the NCT coffee mornings, Callum at Sing and Sign last week...
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We normally have to sniff Lucy's bum to be sure that she's done a poo, but now you mention it, I *have* noticed the smell of poos in disposibles filling entire rooms!
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You know what? I bet they assume bleach and 90 degrees because the sort of person who thinks scented nappy bags are reasonable is probably going to go EWWWW! SQUICK! BOIL! KIIIIIILL! at the mere thought of reusing something that's been shat on.