Disposable nappies are appealing to parents because of convenience, cleanliness and ease of disposal. But there’s more to the story than what you’re tossing away. Typically, a baby uses up to 5000 nappies in their lifetime. As you can imagine, this equates to a significant chunk of our total landfill.
This scale of nappy disposal significantly contributes to rising methane levels and traps heat within our atmosphere up to 20 times more than carbon dioxide emissions. To put this into perspective:
- Disposable baby nappies take up to 450 years to fully decompose.
- With up to 5000 nappies being used per baby in our population, it contributes up to 3% of our landfill waste.
- More than 27 billion nappies are thrown away in the United States per year.
- We’re constantly running out of landfill space.
- Although disposable nappies are convenient, their continual purchase becomes a high long-term expense.
Are Nappies Environmentally Friendly?
With more of the population becoming conscious of the importance of environmental sustainability, more parents are looking into eco friendly nappies for their children such as the ones offered by Twinklebotts. With Twinklebotts, there’s a wide variety of green nappies that parents can choose from. Although reusable nappies aren’t the most attractive option for most parents, they’re extremely cost-efficient and environmentally friendly. If you can move past prejudice about reusable nappies, you’ll find that they employ a significant range of benefits.
Types of Eco-Friendly Nappies
With our generation becoming increasingly more environmentally conscious, we’re investing more into technologies and manufacturing that has positive environmental implications. You can expect that in the future there will be even more available options, but for now we have:
- Cloth Nappies
Although they make for a more expensive initial purchase, the long-term cost implications are far more effective than disposable nappies. The environmental sustainability of a cloth nappy depends largely on your responsible use of them.
- Biodegradable Nappies
Although most biodegradable disposable labelled nappies take 50 years to fully decompose, they are still far healthier for the environment than typical disposable nappies which take up to 450 years to decompose. If you’re unsure on how biodegradable your nappies are, it never hurts to contact local environmental services or to do your own research on the brand you’re using.
- Pay a Local Nappy Washing Service
There are also a wide range of green Nappy Washing Services available. The thought of having to clean nappies is a hurdle for most parents to get over when converting to eco-friendly nappies. Thankfully, nappy washing services take that undue stress off of your hands. By paying these services, you can give yourself the peace of mind of not contributing to detrimental environmental impacts.
The Environmental Dilemma of Disposable Nappies
As mentioned, disposable nappies make up to 3% of our total landfill. Because they take up to 450 years to fully decompose, the constant influx of disposable nappies is detrimental to the health of our planet. A modern landfill contributes to significant amounts of rising methane levels, which is up to 20 times more deadly in trapping heat within our atmosphere than usual carbon dioxide emissions.
How Can I Help the Environment?
It never hurts to do your own research. As our generation is slowly but surely becoming more environmentally conscious, it’s important that you do your part to mitigate your waste disposal by buying reusable household appliances or opt for the purchase of biodegradable materials. Shop at local businesses and check labels for biodegradable or reusable nappies before making a purchase.
