Before Jack was born, Claire and I decided to look into a range of nappies called ‘Bambino Mio’, which have flushable and washable segments of the nappy that should be environmentally friendly, as opposed to the ‘norm’ of using nappies that you use once and then throw away.
Although the Bambino Mio nappies weren’t cheap initially, they did work out to be almost the same price when spread over a long enough period, like 25 years or something (joke!), but more importantly, they are a lot more environmentally friendly than their counterparts, as the padding part of the innards is washable, and the soft tissue part nearest the skin is flushable. The main outer is a soft plastic finish decorated with colourful patterns.
However, Jack’s newborn legs were too small to fill the leg-holes of these Bambino Mio nappies and so we have had to use a regular brand of ‘land-fill’ nappies until he’s a little bigger. But this has opened my eyes as to the amount of nappies that a baby goes through every day.
Now, I’m not hell-bent on saving the planet, but I do like recycling rubbish when we can, doing our bit and all that, but if they reckon that 12 nappies a day is the average for a baby to get through, then no wonder the landfill sites are filling up, as they’re filling up on millions and millions of poo and plastic-filled disposable nappies; ones that’ll be around for between 200 to 500 years.1
Having said that, I’m sure that if I had to store and then wash a day’s worth of washable nappies, the smell must be quite rancid and it must make your stomach turn having to handle them, but that’s why God invented the washing machine. (And sanitising powder to add to the wash!)
I suppose it’s part of the culture that we’re in – throwing stuff away and getting new instead of fixing or, in this case, washing and reusing. But up to 500 years per nappy...? That does make you think.
More reading if you're interested:
- http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/1287722.stm
- http://www.energysavingsecrets.co.uk/ReusableNappiesVsDisposable.html
(1 According to the BBC in the link above.)
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