Real Nappies drying on the line. From left to right: a home made baby wipe, a plastic outer, two real nappies (Dippy Diaper and FuzzyBunz) and a booster pad . By the way, these two real nappies in newborn size have been lent to us by the Highland Real Nappy Project, thanks!
Jenny and I are using real, washable nappies for our baby daughter. We took our decision quite quickly: it seemed to make complete sense – less waste of course but we had also heard that it is better for the environment overall, and that real nappies are simply cheaper than disposable nappies. (I’ve also seen a flyer showing that my employer, the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA) supports real nappies in case I needed more convincing.) However, now that I am half-way through “The Skeptical Environmentalist” by Bjørn Lomborg, I thought that instead of relying on hear say, I should really look at what evidence is out there.
My conclusion is that real nappies are better for the environment given the laundering pattern which we use at home. This is something that is not 100% clear on real nappy promotional material: you need to be sensible in using the washing machine and tumble dryer to actually lower the environmental impact below that of disposable nappies. Furthermore, I am not completely convinced that real nappies are cheaper. Running a washing machine is expensive and given that I don’t know for sure the energy consumption associated with one single wash, it is difficult for me to say that I will save much money at this stage.
Experience shows that real/washable nappies are not difficult to use although it is more time consuming than disposables. It requires being more organised too. I suggest new parents give it a go and consider their environmental conscience, their wallet and their timetable before taking a decision. I suspect availability of space to hang/dry the nappies will be key as if the nappies go in the tumble dryer, most environmental benefits are void.
If you are keen on learning more about nappies, here is a lengthy summary of what I have found in a few evenings of Internet (nappy) searching. Please don’t take this as a thoroughly researched article: it isn’t. As you can guess, I spend much more of my time changing nappies rather than researching them. Nonetheless, writing this article helped me getting satisfied with my initial choice.
1. What are real nappies?
Real nappies are cloth nappies which you wash and reuse after they have been soiled. There are loads of models available, most of them seem to be cotton nappies with a removable plastic outer and pads that can be added inside for extra absorption. Paper or fabric liners are also sold to reduce soiling by solids. Washing your nappies might seem like an odd idea at first given the constant marketing from the disposable nappy industry but disposable nappies are actually very new when you consider how long nappies have been used. For instance my parents used pretty much only washable nappies for myself and my sister (and I am not that old!).
2. Scope
In order to focus a little bit this article, I decided to research three fundamental questions, which are listed in order of importance (to Jenny and me) below:
- Are real nappies good for the baby? Any other advantage would be void if the real nappy caused any extra risk to the child. Full stop.
- Are real nappies better for the environment? Real nappies generate less waste, that’s a no brainer but are they really better for the environment when you factor in the fabrication and then the use of electricity and water to wash them?
- Are real nappies cheaper? Saving the world is nice but can I really afford to?
In the rest of this article, I try to answer each question in turn based on my understanding of things I have found and then read on the Internet. Again, there are probably very important documents that I missed but this should be a start nonetheless. A full list of references is provided at the end of this article and hopefully that’s helpful too.
3. Are real nappies good for the baby?
Before our baby daughter arrived into the world, I knew nothing about nappy rash; or more likely I didn’t remember anything about nappy rash… It looks like nappy rash is often caused by ammonia which is created when urine (wee) gets into contact with faeces (poo). There are lots of types of nappy rash [1] but the basic prevention measure consists of making sure that the baby’s bottom stays as dry as possible [2]. Therefore, it seems that real nappies might be at a slight disadvantage: my personal experience is that they are not as absorbent as disposables. Indeed “disposable diapers are known to reduce the incidence of diaper dermatitis” (nappy rash) [3] . However, it is not as simple as that: Researchers from Bristol University looked at a range of factors [4] associated with the reporting of nappy rash by mothers during the first 4 weeks of a child’s life. They concluded that “contrary to widespread belief, disposable nappies seem to have little protective effect“.
Trawling the medical literature is difficult: how can a non-specialist make up his mind? Luckily, one thing that I have learned on the Bad Science blog is that the Cochrane foundation does thorough systematic reviews of medical issues, by researching the peer-reviewed specialised literature and accounting for the quality of the research papers, the methodology followed and so on. It’s great for people like me who really are not qualified or have the time to do a literature review. Has the Cochrane foundation looked at nappy rash? Yes, in 2006 [5] so it’s a rather recent study. And what did they find? Here is the conclusion straight from the paper (“napkin” is another term for nappy by the way):
“There is not enough evidence from good quality randomised controlled trials to support or refute the use and type of disposable napkins for the prevention of napkin dermatitis in infants.”
Baer et al, 2006 [5]
So basically there is a recent systematic review from a well known, respected research body which concludes that there is no advantage to using disposable nappies. That’s good enough for me at this stage. In conclusion it looks like real nappies are not worse for the baby than disposables with regards to nappy rash.
For information, our baby daughter developed an early rash. It turned out that the rash was probably caused by the paper liner which we were putting inside the nappy. By swapping to a fabric liner (a bit of fleece), the rash has now gone. It’s a known trick apparently as we were advised by a volunteer from the Highland Real Nappy Project to see whether using a fleece liner would make a difference.
4. Are real nappies better for the environment?
The second thing that I wanted to understand is whether real nappies are better for the environment. It seems like a no brainer: real nappies generate less waste so they must be better. Indeed, many local authorities support real nappies and provide funding for local real nappy groups apparently. However, local authorities would say that because waste minimisation is a big deal for them: it reduces their landfill bill. However, environmental impact is more than volume of waste: you have to take other factors such as the energy and water used to wash real nappies for instance. To properly assess the environmental impact of nappies, a full Life Cycle Analysis (LCA) must be carried out: this will assess the material used and their sources, the energy used in production, the waste created in production, the waste disposal, the energy and water required to wash the nappies etc… Basically it’s a lot of work.
In the UK, it seems that most of the evidence comes from two reports [6, 7] written by the English Environment Agency (EA) for the UK Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA). The first report [6] was produced in 2005 with an advisory board representing the industry (representatives from both disposable and washable nappy systems). The 3 main conclusions from this 2005 EA report were:
- There is no environmental impact difference between real and disposable nappies
- The main cause of the environmental impacts depends on the type of nappy: nappy manufacturing for the disposables and nappy washing for the washables
- Nappy waste is a minor contributor to the environmental impact of both disposable nappies and real nappies.
It is quite an interesting read although one has to wonder whether the setup of the advisory noard would ensure that the report would stay neutral. However this report was updated by the EA in 2008 [7]. The conclusions of the updated 2008 EA report are slightly different in terms of environmental impact:
“The environmental impacts of using shaped reusable nappies can be higher or lower than using disposables, depending on how they are laundered.”
UK Environment Agency, 2008 [7]
Basically the updated report concludes that the environmental impact from real nappies depends mostly on consumer behaviour. If people wash their real nappies at a lower temperature (60 degrees) and don’t use a tumble dryer, the enviromental impact of real nappies is significantly lower than disposable nappies (e.g. 40% less CO2 equivalent). However, if people tumble dry all their washable nappies, the environmental impact is a lot higher (e.g. 31% increase in CO2 equivalent). Again, the report also concludes that the environmental impact of disposable nappies does not come from the waste generated but from manufacturing (point 2 above) which goes against common perception. This finding was repeated elsewhere; for instance researchers form the University of Brisbane in Australia found [8] that “the user has much more control over the environmental impact of home-washed reusables” via the way nappies are washed. Note however that the laundering pattern for this study was different as it involved soaking nappies in warm water (55 degrees) and a cold wash every other day.
Overall this does not surprise me. I would speculate that real, washable nappies have won the battle: if you can be bothered to use washable nappies, then it is likely that you will be willing to limit the energy consumption of washing the nappies. Indeed, it is more work to use washable nappies and so the people who do it must have some motivation, I would therefore certainly expect them to be careful on energy use. This might not be true for commercial nappy washing although you would think that if it is a firm’s business to wash nappies, they’d try to lower their energy bill (their main cost).
If the impact depends on consumer behaviour, the consumer must be educated so that the impact is indeed minimised. The findings of the 2008 EA report have been reported in various ways in the press. The Daily Telegraph reported [9] that real nappies were better “but only if the most energy efficient washing methods are used“. The Sunday Times reported [10] wrote a fairly hysterical article, explaining that the report “found that using washable nappies, hailed by councils throughout Britain as a key way of saving the planet, have a higher carbon footprint than their disposable equivalents unless parents adopt an extreme approach to laundering them”. I am not quite sure I live on the same planet as Times journalists sometimes… or line drying and washing at 60 degrees is no ”extreme” laundering. The Absorbent Hygiene Products Manufacturers Association (AHPMA, yes such a thing exists!) was very good at reporting the initial 2005 report with a press release [11], two press statements [12, 13] and also a report [14] about an event help at Westminster with the then Shadow Environment Minister Bill Wiggin MP. Their conclusion was basically that disposables were as good as anything. However AHPMA had nothing to say about the updated 2008 version although, to be fair to them, they do list it in the “Publications” section of their website. Most council/local authority websites I have visited via Internet searches do advise washing at 60 degrees, avoiding tumble drying etc… However I think they should state more clearly that unless you do follow the guidelines on laundering, there is no “environmental” merit in using real nappies (i.e. what you save in landfill waste you pay for in coal power stations).
5. Are real nappies cheaper?
The third question I am interested is the cost. This one is easier to investigate without having to scour technical literature. Here is a quick back of the envelope calculation on cost.
5.1 Disposable nappies
The cost for disposable nappies is fairly easy to work out: unit price multiplied by the total number of nappies used. Using data from the same 2008 Environment Agency report [7] it is thought that an average of 4.16 disposable nappies are used per day during the first two and a half year of a child’s life. That’s a total of 3796 disposable nappies. In terms of unit cost I had a quick look on the Tesco’s website and the cheapest disposable nappy today (17/05/2010 when this paragraph was written) is the “Pampers Baby Dry” for which you can buy a “Mega Pack Maxi 120″ for £12 (on special offer, hurry!). That’s 10p per nappy or approximately £380 overall for the 3796 changes over 2.5 years. Note this is a conservative estimate, you will end up paying more than that in practice as you have to buy different sizes, might not finish all packs etc…. For instance, it these nappies had not been on special offer, you’d pay £16.49 for the pack and therefore more than £520 overall. You could also argue that disposable wipes should be factored in as well as users of disposable nappies might be more inclined to use disposable wipes (pure speculation but it seems to make sense somehow). That would boost the cost by something like a pack a week (approx. £1) or £130 overall for the wipes over 2.5 years. So the total is from £650 onwards.
5.2 Real nappies
For real nappies, the total number of changes is irrelevant as the nappies are re-used, what actually matters is the upfront cost of buying a set of nappies and then the running cost of washing them (electricity + soap). I know from experience that many households in the UK are on un-metered water so I ignored the water cost intentionally. I don’t have a tumble dryer so nappies have to dry naturally on the line or on the radiators in the winter. I don’t anticuipate this to increase much my central heating bill.
Our real nappies were given to us as a gift so I am not sure how much they cost, we have also “rented” some newborn size nappies from the Highland Real Nappy Project at a very low cost. Nonetheless, there are many so-called “birth to potty” packs around the £250 mark which are meant to provide enough kit to see your child through the first 2.5 years so we will use £250 as a ball park figure. I currently do a wash every morning for the nappies from the day before. That’s a total of 912.5 washes over 2.5 years. You need to put some sort of soap in the washing machine. I currently use Persil Non-Bio tablets right now which can be bought in packs of 40 for £4 in Tesco’s (17/05/2010). The pack is marketed for 20 washes but as we do half loads for the nappies, that’s 10p per wash or over £90 during the first 2.5 years: a lot more than I anticipated for soap! It’s a bit more difficult to quantify electricity consumption. I went for a stock average UK washing machine which is rated at 1.04kWh per load for a 60 degree wash (see Table 31 on page 15 in [7]). Therefore, the total energy consumption is the total energy consumption is 949kWh. At a rate of 12p/kWh, that’s approximately £114.
Overall, the cost of buying and washing the real nappies is approximately £454. Note that this assumes no tumble drying (we don’t have one), no pre-washing (we don’t), one wash a day (some people do one every other day). Also, the electricity estimate is for a 60 degrees wash and we wash at 40 degrees which is 25% more efficient according to Table 3.1 in [7]. It’s also true that even hardened real nappy user will probably use some disposable nappies (e.g. when travelling) but the small number of disposables is unlikely to impact significantly the overall cost.
5.3 Conclusion on cost
Overall, it costs £454 for real nappies versus £650 for disposables. The difference is much smaller than I anticipated as it is often said that using washable nappies saves on average £500 over disposables, see for instance the Waste Aware Scotland website [15] or the Highland Real Nappy Project [16]. Birmingham City Council even states a possible £700 saving [17]! I doubt the saving is that high. In particular, if tumble drying is added, it might be that economically it does not make much sense unless very modern/efficient appliances are used (and don’t have to upgrade just for that or it will cost you more!). Obviously if the nappies are used for child number 2 and the next, real nappies become more competitive as the upfront cost of buying the nappies goes down and the only running cost are the electricity and the soap. Basically I think that the cost saving will depend on the lifestyle of the household in terms of energy consumption and overall sustainability. Some people will be more inclined to buy second hand nappies or borrow them from friends or a community group, in that case they will probably save money.
6. Conclusion
To conclude, I am quite happy now that real nappies are indeed better for the environment (with the laundering pattern which Jenny and I use at home) and that real nappies are not a increased risk factor for my child. However, I am less convinced about the cost argument. Running a washing machine is expensive and given that I don’t know for sure the energy consumption associated with a wash, it is difficult for me to say that I will save much money at this stage.
I think that the promotional real nappy literature should do more at explaining that if people choose real nappies for the environmental benefit, it’s essential to follow the recommended laundering advice otherwise the energy use will counterbalance the waste minimization.
Experience shows that real/washable nappies are not difficult to use although it is more time consuming than disposables. It requires being more organised too. I suggest new parents give it a go and consider their environmental conscience, their wallet and their timetable before taking a decision. I suspect availability of space to hang/dry the nappies will be key as if the nappies go in the tumble dryer, most environmental benefits are void.
7. References
[1] Causes of nappy rash on NHS Direct. http://www.cks.nhs.uk/patient_information_leaflet/nappy_rash/causes, retrieved on 16/05/2010.
[2] Prevention of nappy rash on NHS Direct. http://www.cks.nhs.uk/patient_information_leaflet/nappy_rash/prevention, retrieved on 16/05/2010
[3] Prasad HR, Srivastava P, Verma KK. Diaper dermatitis–an overview. Indian J Pediatr. 2003 Aug;70(8):635-7. Review. PubMed PMID: 14510084. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/14510084
[4] R Philipp, A Hughes, and J Golding. Getting to the bottom of nappy rash. ALSPAC Survey Team. Avon Longitudinal Study of Pregnancy and Childhood. Br J Gen Pract. 1997 August; 47(421): 493–497. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1313078/
[5] Baer EL, Davies MW, Easterbrook KJ. Disposable nappies for preventing napkin dermatitis in infants. Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews 2006, Issue 3. Art. No.: CD004262. http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/14651858.CD004262.pub2
[6] Life Cycle Assessment of Disposable and Reusable Nappies in the UK. Environment Agency, Science Report – SCHO0505BJCW-E-P, 2005. Report in PDF format available from http://publications.environment-agency.gov.uk/pdf/SCHO0505BJCW-e-e.pdf, retrieved 15/05/2010
[7] An updated lifecycle assessment study for disposable and reusable nappies. Environment Agency, Science Report – SC010018/SR2, 2008. Report in PDF format available from http://publications.environment-agency.gov.uk/pdf/SCHO0808BOIR-e-e.pdf, retrieved 15/05/2010
[8] O’Brien, Olive, Hsu, Morris, Bell and Kendall. Life Cycle Assessment: Reusable and Disposable Nappies in Australia. (2009). Grey (unpublished??) article from School of Engineering, University of Queensland, Brisbane. Article available in PDF format from http://www.crdc.com.au/uploaded/file/E-Library/Climate%20Change%20July%2009/LCA%20Cotton%20v%20Disposable%20Nappies%20OBrienetal2009.pdf, retrieved 22/05/2010.
[9] Nappies: terry cloth more environmentally-friendly than disposable. The Daily Telegraph, 17 October 2008. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/earthnews/3353497/Nappies-terry-cloth-more-environmentally-friendly-than-disposable.html, retrieved 21 May 2010.
[10] Blow to image of ‘green’ reusable nappy. The Sunday Times, 19 October 2008. http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/environment/article4969413.ece, retrieved 21 may 2010.
[11] Study serves up nappy dilemma for parents. Press release from the Environment Agency, 19 May 2005. Press release in PDF format available from http://www.ahpma.co.uk/docs/EA%20Press%20release.pdf, retrieved 21 May 2010.
[12] Disposable Nappies – No Worse for the Environment than Cloth Nappies. Press statement from AHPMA, 19 may 2005. Press release in PDF format available from http://www.ahpma.co.uk/docs/AHPMA_LCA_General_Press_statement_19_05_05.pdf, retrieved 21 May 2010.
[13] Disposable Nappies – Great news for modern mothers! Press statement from AHPMA, 19 may 2005. Press statement in PDF format available from http://www.ahpma.co.uk/docs/AHPMA%20LCA%20parenting-Consumer%20Press%20Statement%2017.%2005%2005.pdf, retrieved 21 May 2010.
[14] Nappies in Westminster. News release from AHPMA, 21 may 2005. News release in PDF format available from http://www.ahpma.co.uk/docs/Bill_wiggins_21.11.05.pdf, retrieved 21 May 2010.
[15] Why Use Real nappies on the Waste Aware Scotland website. http://www.wasteawarescotland.org.uk/realNappyWhy.asp, retrieved 19/05/2010
[16] Benefits of Real Nappies on the Highland Real nappy Project website. http://www.hrnp.org.uk/cms/all-about-real-nappies/benefits-of-real-nappies.html, retrieved 19/05/2010
[17] Real Nappies on the Birmingham City Council website. http://www.birmingham.gov.uk/cs/Satellite/nappies, retrieved 19/05/2010
Wow, that was certainly a lot of research. Overall the balance was 454 for real nappies vs 650 for disposables; a difference of 196 pounds. However, you forgot to factor in the time for washing the nappies. It takes time to put them in the wash, hang them up, pack them away etc. At 196 pounds, assuming that one makes 20 pounds an hour (a very conservative assumption, salary is likely to be larger) then one covers the difference in less than 10 hours. That is easily achievable over two years. In fact, one could ignore the money cost, because if one used disposables and spent the time working (assuming you could get extra money for that time) then the difference would be zero.
@andy You’re right, although I am not sure you can assume that you’d make more money if you were not packing/washing: most people have only one job and nappy duties are unlikely to change their working hours.
Another thing that a friend pointed out is that I should have accounted for the depreciation of the washing machine as it is used more and therefore its life will be reduced. This would affect the environmental impact too.
Overall the cost argument does not convince me, I agree with you. However, I am pretty sure now that it’s better for the environment which matters a lot to me.
Wow, this is the most thorough analysis I’ve seen on the subject.
We went with nappies for both of our kids, except when we were away from home (e.g., overnight camping, for example), where we’d use disposable because there is no safe and convenient storage mechanism for soiled nappies.
The original nappies were far less expensive, around US$100 if I recall.
Once you do several dozen washings, it becomes rote and you can multitask really well. As we are in a very wet, cool climate, air drying isn’t feasible. We did find that a more efficient spin cycle on the washer helped reduce the tumble dry times substantially (90 minutes down to 45 minutes). Tumble-dried nappies produce a lot of lint, requiring more frequent cleaning of the dryer exhaust.
Also, when your child is toilet-trained, the nappies are still usable as household rags.
You’ve put a lot of work into this – well done. And thanks for the links.
As you can see, I’m the Nappy Lady, and cloth nappies is what we do. I do my best to give people the complete picture and a fair comparison, rather than trying to frighten people off using disposables. It’s not our job to persuade people to use cloth, but to ensure they don’t waste money when they do. It’s all too easy to get sucked into cloth nappy addiction!
There have been two Environment Agency lifecycle reports about nappies. Both came to the same conclusion, though no newspapers reported on it: that responsibility for the environmental impact of the nappies you use rests largely with the manufacturer for disposables and largely with the consumer for cloth nappies.
The more children you have, the greater the cost benefit of using cloth. I made a net PROFIT of about £100 on nappying my second son – all I had to buy was a few top up items and I sold the nappies at the end of the process.
Anyway, I’m currently writing the Nappy Lady Guide to Cloth Nappies, so if any readers want to contribute their ideas for what they would like to see in that, please pop over to my blog at http://www.nappyladyuk.co.uk or to our main information site at http://www.thenappylady.co.uk.
@Morag Hi Morag, You’re right about the two EA reports (which are fully referenced in my post btw). They do conclude that the onus is on the consumer for the real nappies. After doing a lot of reading on the subject, I feel that the real nappy promotional literature should be very clear about it though and highlight how borderline it is if the laundering advice is not adhered to.
Regarding costs, it’s true that re-using nappies for a second child (or borrowing nappies from somebody else) will reduce costs (by half almost according to my calculations). I saw on your website that cot to potty kits are sold for £250 so my estimates seem conservative.
@jim Hey Jim, long time no speak!! I suspect you used “simpler” nappies than the ones mentioned in this article re: price of the starter kit. It’s for shaped nappies which come with velcro or press studs, booster pads, external liners etc… (the works). Basic pieces of terry cloth and safety pins would be cheaper. But maybe it’s just much cheaper on your side of the pond!
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