This year’s Real Nappy Week, Waste Awareness Wales is encouraging parents in Gwynedd to save money and reduce waste by ditching the disposables and using reusable nappies on their babies.
Real Nappy Week, which runs from 26 April to 2 May 2010, is being supported by Waste Awareness Wales. An annual event designed to give people across Wales the opportunity to find out more about real nappies and how easy it is to use them on their children, the week will involve a range of activities and events throughout Wales.
Throughout the week, local real nappy agents and local authorities will be working together to promote the benefits of using real, washable nappies, instead of the disposable ones. Events including Nappucinos (nappy coffee mornings) will be taking place, all designed to help raise the profile of washable nappies and get the message out to Welsh parents that they can save money and cut down on their waste by using them on their children.
Rachel Jowitt, head of waste support at Waste Awareness Wales said:
“Since the start of the recession, many more parents have been looking for cheaper ways to look after their children and this has extended to their choice of nappies. Parents have started to realise that real cotton nappies are a natural, easy and cost-effective alternative to disposables – and they don’t cost the earth!
“By the time a baby is potty trained, around 5,000 nappies will have been used, and if you use disposables, that’s 156 black bags of waste going to landfill where they will remain for hundreds of years. However, for many parents it is the financial rather than environmental benefits which are the prime motivation. Real nappy users save around £500 for the first child and even more for subsequent children, making them easy on the wallet as well as your rubbish bin which is particularly important in this difficult economic climate.”
“Real nappies have moved on a lot since many people’s last experiences of them and we want to show people just how they have evolved. These days there’s not a safety pin in sight, just colourful designs and patterns that come in nappy shapes and fasten with fabric or poppers making them incredibly easy and fashionable to use.”
Real Facts on Real Nappies
- In Wales 200 million disposable nappies are thrown away each year – 400 nappies every minute
- A potty trained baby will have got through 4,000-6,000 nappies
- Using real nappies can be up to half the cost of disposables – and they can be reused with subsequent children to save even more
- Families with one baby could cut their waste in half by choosing to use real nappies
- One baby’s disposable nappies from its nappy years will fill around 156 black rubbish bags
For more information and for a full list of events, visit the Real Nappy Wales website: www.realnappies-wales.co.uk and www.wasteawarenesswales.org.uk
