If you are having a baby, prepare to spend a small fortune on disposable nappies. Some county councils estimate that children will use up 5,000 nappies until potty-trained. With individual nappies costing up to 27 cent each, that’s about €500 a year you’re putting in the bin.
Add nappy sacks, wipes and bin charges to dispose of the 1,750kg of domestic waste generated and that’s quite a big outlay in the early years of your child’s life.
In Ireland 1.2 million disposable nappies go into landfill every day – that’s more than 430 million single-use nappies annually. These end up either incinerated or sent to landfill and can take up to 500 years to break down, according to the nationwide not-for-profit Cloth Nappy Library. It wants to make cloth nappies mainstream by enabling parents to borrow them, and get local support trying them out.
If you are thinking big terry cloth squares and giant safety pins, think again. The modern cloth nappy is designed to be as easy to use as a disposable nappy. It looks pretty cute, too. But surely cloth nappies are loads more work? Parents up half the night with a young baby might not feel like taking on extra tasks. Putting a disposable nappy into a sack, putting the sack in a bin and taking the bin to the end of the drive seems manageable. Yes, it’s a different drill with cloth nappies, but the cost savings and environmental benefits are compelling.
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So how do cloth nappies work? If your child has started weaning, remove any solids in the nappy. Keep the used nappies in a dry bucket or wash bag until you have enough for a wash. Do a cold rinse and spin, then a full long cotton wash at 60 degrees with bio powder. You can’t tumble dry some reusable nappies, so your options include line drying, or using a clothes horse or airing cupboard.
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One thing’s for sure: whatever type of nappy you choose, there’s no avoiding the pees and poos.
Disposables are hardly without their ick factor. If you were to use five disposable nappies a day, that’s 35 nappies over a week, or 70 for a fortnightly bin collection. They are all sitting out in your yard, stinking up the place and they are costing you money in bin charges.
Instead of the 5,000 or so disposable nappies you will need to get your baby from birth to potty trained, you’ll need just 24 cloth nappies, says the Cloth Nappy Library. And they can then be reused on subsequent siblings, or sold on when you’re finished with them too.
Proponents say investment in cloth nappies and wipes for a first child, including machine washing, breaks even in a year. Reuse them on a second child and the saving continues.
Cloth Nappy Library Ireland allows you to borrow and trial 10 reusable nappies for three weeks for just €30. They’ll even post them to you. Converts can then choose to invest in reusable nappies at €14-€30 each, depending on the brand. Second-hand reusable nappies are available for about 60 per cent less.
Borrowing is also a good way for experienced users to compare fit, absorbency and other features of individual nappy brands before investing in new nappies. Cloth nappies mean you’re not putting your money in the bin.