The Facts about Eco Nappies
In the UK about 800,000 tonnes of nappy waste is produced each year, which local authorities must dispose of. Nappies account for 4% of the UKs domestic waste.
For every £1 spent on disposables, it costs the taxpayer 10p to dispose of them.
Each baby can produce up to a ton of soiled disposable nappies. Disposables usually end up in landfill sites, complete with faeces, which may contain viruses, paper pulp, plastic and absorbant gel.
Paper pulp is the largest single constituent of the disposable nappy. Ancient and diverse Canadian and Scandanavian forests are being felled and replaced with monoculture plantations which are intensively managed with pesticides and fertilisers to produce the pulp used in Britain.
Disposables also contain plastic produced from none renewable crude oil resources. Some nappies contain biodegradable plastic, however, degradation only occurs if the conditions are optimal, which may not be found in Britsh landfill sites, where most disposables end up. Additionally, modern premium disposable nappies contain an increasing amount of sodium polyacrylate, the absorbant gel. It is not known how long a disposable nappy takes to decompose although estimates say around 200-500 years. What is certain however, is that the increasing volumes of decomposable rubbish put into landfill sites by our throw away society today will lead to a mountain of problems for our children in future years.
Many animal species are at risk from these forestry practices, and much water and some chemicals are used in converting wood into pulp.
