Money Savings...

It is considerably cheaper to use washable nappies rather than disposables even when taking the cost of running the washing machine into account.

The amount that you can save will depend on several factors:

. What type of re-usable nappy you use
. If you will be using the nappies for more than one child
. Whether you use a tumble dryer to dry them

In general I would say that you would save somewhere between £500 and £600 by using re-usable nappies.

The Guardian newspaper recently published an article showing that the cost of disposable nappies, disposables wipes and plastic nappy sacks is £14.50 per week. This means over 2.5 years that it would cost parents a STAGGERING £1885...this is for one child! This report can be downloaded here.

The spreadsheet below will show you how much you can save. For example, if you change your baby 6 times a day, then it would cost approximately £966.68 until the baby is toilet trained in disposables. I’m taking toilet trained to be 2 and a half years.All values are taken from WEN, the Womens Environmental Network

In cloth nappies, it would really only cost the cost of the nappies, detergent and washing machine wear and tear and hot water. Bearing in mind that cloth nappy wearers are generally potty-trained before disposable nappy wearers, and you do not need to use the amount of detergent that manufacturers recommend.

You could save over £500

In the spreadsheet below you can change the numbers to reflect your circumstances.

Facts about nappies...

• Each baby will need between 4500-6000 nappy changes from birth to potty training. This equates to 2.5 tonnes of rubbish if the baby is wearing disposable nappies.

• Every disposable nappy that has ever been thrown on to a landfill site will probably still be there.

• At least 8 million nappies are thrown away each day in the UK.

•Each year in Fife, we throw away over 20 million disposable nappies.

• 4.5 trees are used to make the pulp for disposable nappies for 1 baby over 2.5 years.

• 1 cup of crude oil goes in to make one disposable nappy

• Disposable nappies use: 3.5 times more energy; 2.3 times more waste water; 8.3 times more non-renewable raw materials; 90 times more renewable raw materials than washable nappies. Disposable nappies create 60 times more solid waste and require 30 times more land than washable nappies

• Some council rubbish collections, i.e. us in Fife, are reduced to every 2 weeks, this means that your grey bin could have around 160 smelly nappies in it before it is emptied...lovely!.

• A birth to potty set of reusable nappies can cost less than £300. To keep a baby in disposables for 2.5 years would cost around £950.

• The cloth nappies can be used for more than one child, and cloth nappies can be sold when you are finished with them.

• Cloth nappies do not contain chemicals. The majority are made out of cotton.

• Babies can feel when they are wet, this can help toddlers be toilet trained more quickly.

• Reusable nappies are not terries with pins anymore. They do not need to be boiled etc. They are as easy as a disposable to use, and most come with poppers or Velcro to fasten them.

• What would you prefer to wear? Disposable paper pants or cotton? There really is no choice!

Click on the above image for a downloadable excel spreadsheet on costings for nappies.

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