This week Beat 102 103, we looked at cloth nappies as alternative to the regular single-use nappy for babies.
Did you know:
- It takes over 1,500 litres of crude oil to produce enough nappies for one child (from birth to 2.5 years) and it takes 10 times more water to produce disposable nappies than the water used to wash reusables.
- A child in disposables will generate almost 900kg of nappy waste during its first two years of infancy.
- Throughout Europe, 87% of single-use nappies are sent to landfill.
Why is switching to a re-usable nappy so important?
By swapping to reusables the carbon footprint of a nappy can be reduced by 40%, which is equivalent to 200kg of CO 2 equivalents over two and half years. If only 20% of babies in nappies switched to reusables, the amount of waste that could be prevented in Europe alone would be more than 1 million tonnes per year.
In energy terms, an average wash cycle will cost 16 pence as it uses one unit of electricity. Additionally, an Energy Star-rated machine will incur a cost of approximately 6 pence per wash based on the use of sixty litres of water per cycle. We already know that the manufacturing processes involved in disposable nappies is 10 times this amount.
Most modern cloth nappies are designed to dry quickly on the line or an airer, so relying on a tumble drier is just not necessary. This, of course, greatly reduces any energy usage that may be assumed when we talk about reusable nappies.
To find out more about the bikes we used from Wexford County Council:
