Nappies…for those who care, and our church group, The Joondalup Thing cares as we use a few nappies between us, well not so much the adults but a few couples have new kids, especially Charlie and case…just a few days old! Congrats to them and welcome baby Danika!
In Australia we use 800 million disosable nappies every year. Each child in our group (as well as every other one is OZ will generate around 845kilos of nappy waste before being toilet trained. Disposable nappies can take up to 500 years to break down. The difference between cloth and disposable nappies is shown below with regards to the energy used in producing the nappies, the solid waste and the waste water generated and the matteriasls consumed. It also show how much more or less impact one is on the environment cloth nappies are compared to normal disposables. (I say normal as I am aware now that there are more and more environmentally friendly dispoables on the market.
The table does not all line up pretty, so here is the three figures…Column one is cloth nappies, two is disposable nappies and the third is the impact difference on the environment.
(MJ = megajoules)
Energy – 2532MJ 8900MJ 3.5X
Waste Water – 12.4m3 28m3 2.3X
Raw Matterials:
(Non renewable) – 25kg 208kg 8.3X
Raw matterials:
(Renewable) – 4kg 361kg 90X
Domestic Solid Waste – 4kg 240kg 60X
No Guarantees 
That was a total spinout!! Russell and I have been talking for the last couple of months the fact that we will use cloth nappies instead of disposable ones when we have kids!!!
Thats so weird!!
My parents survived on cloth ones, and many people before us have too, so I dont think there should be any problem for people or us!
what a load of crap
😛
Hmm, we have twins in our house! Do these stats include biodegradble disposable nappies & plastic bags? I hate land fill but I appreciate sanity!
Ya we loaded up with cloth nappies – and even used them for our first child in combination with disposables. Beware the arrival of the second child however – staying the cloth nappy course with two children under 2 is only for the totally committed and we just couldn’t keep it up.
Proof reader here- materials spelt with 1 t; for future blogging.
I really wish I was one of those Mums who could or started off doing the cloth thing! Disposeables are not only bad for the env.. but very expensive… We have 2 babys in nappies atm and spend approx $80 a month…on a good month! My onnly dilema however is that I (as un organised as I may be at times) Struggle to keep up with the normal laudry load, let alone nappies on top of that!
To all Those Mums that do the clopth thig…. You Rock!!!
Jacky
OK I need to say sorry for my many spelling and gramma errors, I was typing in a hurry with children yelling!!! Sorry all
Jacky
I use modern cloth on my baby. Its just as easy as disposables. I use fitteds and wool covers as I prefer natural materials.
I don’t soak them. Just rinse dirties and put in dry bucket and wash a load every 2 days. So much nicer for me, for bub and for the environment 🙂
I like the choice that cloth offers!