Possible “nappy tax” on disposables

yet again, the consumer, be it male or female, left with the manufacturers/designers mess up!

the manufacturers/designers should be accountable, to design and make nappies that are disposable. ie. not the consumers fault/problem that they take millions of years to rot down!

to me , this is stating the obvious!

There are just as many Pads/pullups used for incontinence, we used to have a brilliant service from the council, but that was stopped years ago. No more yellow bags nor kerb collections any longer.

Galaxy

Yes always the wonens job to save the planet.

You're right. Maybe she could be chained to the kitchen sink as well. The majority of mum's are working outside of the home and have been for a good many years. Soaking and washing nappies is very time consuming. The constant need for the washing to be done hardly helps the planet does it, along with all the detergent plus electricity required.

My grandson who is 10 months old usually wears reusables during the day but disposables at night as they are less prone to leaking. I recently went camping with him and his parents and it was disposables all the time! I used disposables for my two, but reusables were still the old fashioned terry squares. The new style reusables are much better and more user friendly. I imagine they are more comfortable too.

I had twelve months between my two boys, in their 50's now. There were no disposable nappies then. I had an old Goblin washing machine that didn't heat the water, So pans had to boil on the stove, with a ringer attached and no spin dryer. The inner nappies were muslin and easy to wash. I only had one dozen of each, so it was a hard slog for two years. The nappies would soak in Napisan for a few hors before washng. I have often wondered where all these disposable nappies end up and can't imagine what they must be doing to the environment.

I worked in nurseries for over 20 years from the 1970’s. We always used terry nappies so you can imagine how many we went through in a day! Can’t begin to imagine the expense and waste had we used disposables. I raised my own three using terry towelling nappies tied with a large pin! Saved me a fortune and as terry’s lasted for years I either passed them on to other family members/friends with newborns or used them for hand towels or when they began to wear out they made terrific dish cloths etc!. Not only are re-usable cloth nappies better for the environment and better for your purse, I found that little ones would become toilet trained at a much earlier age than they do today because they didn’t like the uncomfortable feeling of a soggy nappy! Unfortunately because disposables are so good at what they are designed to do, it is not uncommon these days for many 3 year olds to turn up for their first day at nursery school still wearing nappies leaving the poor teachers to do the parenting job of toilet training them.
As for “nappy tax” although it may be a good idea in theory, I can’t see it making a whole lot of difference: people will always pay more for convenience. It’s education people need not punishment

It's a sad fact that the use of pull-on disposable nappy is driven purely by capitalism that produces these items with no thought to the environment and every enticement to mothers (and fathers) to avail themselves of 'user-friendly' means in the nappy department. It's also a definite fact that children brought up with disposable nappies remain 'wet' for longer and that the numbers of children arriving at school still wearing disposable nappies has increased because of this practice. There's little encouragement for a child to make the effort as the disposables are often comfortable and there's no wet feeling as the urine passes through into the 'containing' fibres of the nappy. There are various alternatives and cloth nappies can be managed easily as many parents who just give that a chance know. We need to protect the planet for those children and we shouldn't be turning a blind eye to the environmental destruction that billions of disposable nappies cause just because we think that mums have it tough and need their lives making easier. Likewise with sanitary and incontinence protection. Incontinence pads are collected by local authorities but they go with other clinical waste for incineration and that in itself has an environment impact but it's considerably less.

In the sixties when my two were babies I used a white enamel bucket on the stove to boil the terry nappies no washing machine how time has changed

When I had my babies in 1947 and 1949 I had no choice but to use terry and muslin nappies. We lived in an attic flat with only a kitchen sink with a cold tap. Detergents were invented so I had to boil the nappies in a buck on the gas stove after rubbing them on a washboard with a bar of Sunlight soap.
Then wring them by hand a nd dry on a ceiling airer.
When I was a teenager they’re were no menstrual pads just terry squares which had to be washed.

Weren’t invented.p

It is very condescending to say that young mothers need to be told to use cloth instead of disposables, for several reasons:
1. Young or old, parents (mother and father) made the decisions for the kids
Yes, fathers do also change diapers now (gasp)

2. Disposables are not new. They have been available for decades and some posters have used them

3. Posters who are no longer active parents of kids on diapers have 0 input on what other parents do
You do not know their lifestyle, budget, etc.
Mind your own business
Live and let live

4. I adooooooore cloth diapers.
I do versions of cloth for everything I can at home

However, it is NOT cheap.
Cloth diapers are a HUGE investment up front and it is not for everyone
Disposables are so cheap nowadays that reusing cloth over and over again is no longer financially sound

Some parents are not willing to scrape the poop out of the cloth diapers before washing them - and it's ok!
Toleraring poopy hands daily is an skill.

Cloth diapers are also frowned upon these days as "unsanitary", been told that several times

UK has one of the lowest breastfeeding rates in the country - why not worry about formula, baby bottle waste, etc.

Bottom line - you parented your way with the resources available at your disposal.
Parents now do the same
Back off and stop judging

"Back off and stop judging" perhaps you should take notice of your own 'advice' Hithere. GN is a forum for discussion and debate which is what's happening on this thread.

hithere your post is very judgy- but the plain fact is we are in a climate / environmental crisis which cannot be reversed but can be slowed down - it means the powers that be and we as individuals have to make changes to our lifestyles which may be less convenient for ourselves and make less money for the shareholders of big businesses. Whether it’s changing our eating habits, switching fuels, banning disposable plastic inessentials it has to be done quickly. It’s not just up to us to decide what’s convenient what we can and can’t afford- measures have to be put in place , not just stick but carrots could be used - subsiding eco friendly alternatives, nappy washing services or whatever, people will get used to alternatives just as we have in the past.

Exactly!

Global warming has been in the making for many decades and we all can help, not just diapers.

It is not what it is being done now, it is the cumulative effect of the past as well

"It is not what is being done now, it is the cumulative effect of the past as well" of course it is, has anyone said differently? That doesn't alter the fact that changes have to be made and with the amount going into landfill, using alternatives to disposable nappies is one of those changes.

My daughter uses reusable nappies. They are a far cry from Terry nappies. They are all different and brightly coloured and dry really easily. However they are very expensive to buy and not all parents could afford the initial outlay although they will break even or save money over time.

For many years after they were no longer needed as nappies, I used them as cleaning cloths.

Going back to toilet training - my youngest was born in Singapore where we had all tiled floors. So I bought a lot of little knickers and she just ran around and peed etc on impulse. She soon learned that it was better to stop and control rather than feel all soggy and uncomfortable.
She would be just over a year old.

No one has answered my request for evidence that disposables take hundreds of years to decompose ... fair enough.

I was just randomly thinking how eco-damaging are golf courses - all that water to keep the greens looking nice. And taking up space that could be used for much-needed houses.

Riverwalk I love you.

Riverwalk Between 50 and 20,000 years depending on your source.

Friends of the Earth Scotland said 500, but gave no source for their figures.

A government report says ^Regarding landfill and energy from waste, the recent peer-reviewed software tool,
WRATE, was used to model waste management activities. The research and documentation associated with WRATE suggests gas generation is complete within 100 years, and leachate release to groundwater approaches levels of contaminant detection within 20,000 years. WRATE attributes these total emissions of gas and leachate to the material as soon as it is landfilled.^ assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/291130/scho0808boir-e-e.pdf

According to The Guardian, biodegradable disposable nappies take 50 years to decompose www.theguardian.com/environment/blog/2010/apr/26/nappy-debate

Well you did ask!

In the 70s when I had my two, I started with Terry's and when we moved to Sweden just after my DD was born, it was impossible to get, Napisan, waterproof pants, nappy pins etc because it was all disposables. Magic. What a relief.

Yes the question of long term degradation of disposables, but in the big picture there are many, many other areas where long term deterioration is far more dangerous for the planet.

So given the life style of young mums these days, give them a break, a few months of using these nappies is forgiveable.

The only drawback is the durability of them, and as mentioned earlier, this delays the child becoming dry early. Just get on with potty training earlier, take off nappies in summer etc. My daughter was 11 months when she was dry and this with using disposables.

M0nica

We have just used a washing machine, one of a set of three outside a supermarket in France. It took 47 minutes (precisely) and because they were industrial washers they spun the washing nearly dry, just needed a bit of airing. We used the 18 kilo load machine( there was also an 8 kilo machine) as we had the bedding from 6 beds plus towels, but a couple of families could share a load.

I know it is a cliche to say see life in solutions not problems, but when anybody introduces any idea that would ameliorate any of the problems facing the work, you can virtually guarantee that someone will pour ice cold water on the suggestion 'because it will affect the poorest in society'.

I am with most people in seeing poverty as a problem that has to be eliminated, but, I wish those saying it would think round and suggest possible solutions. Landfill rubbish is a major problem in almost any country, nappies form a significant part of landfill and do not rot for hundreds of years. A solution needs to be found whether people are poor or rich.

I have seen a few of these in the UK and here are still lauderettes around. I used one to locally to wash a duvet.

I've used launderettes on holiday and found them very expensive. I would think using them week in week out would be more than alot of families could afford.

My three had cloth nappies. Modern day ones are beautifully shaped and easy to use. Much easier than the squares I had to fold into a kite shape to put on my babies. With washing machines and tumble driers hardly a problem to use.