Nappies and babies kind of go hand in hand, and these days that normally means buying a pack of pampers or huggies or some other disposable nappy. The cost to the environment however is huge, as is the cost to your pocket!

Figures from www.recycle.co.uk show that in the UK we throw away a massive 3 billion disposable nappies every year, and that 90% of those end up in landfill. That’s one heck of a lot of nappy going into the ground just to keep your baby’s poo contained. But what are the alternatives? After all, letting them go ‘au natural’ is just a tad messy for most of us.

Kitting your baby out with washable nappies would not only save hundreds of nappies per baby from going into landfill, but it would also save the parent’s pocket too. It costs roughly 17p for the average disposable nappy, and if you think in terms of 6 changes per 24hrs, that’s just over £1 per day. Most kids are in nappies till they are around two and a half years old, so with an average priced disposable you could find that your baby’s nappies will cost you over £900.

To kit a baby out in washable nappies you’ll need maybe 24 nappies, you’ll also want waterproof covers and fastenings. Obviously your baby will grow over the 2.5 years it’s wearing nappies, but because of the versatility of cloth nappies you’ll probably only need to buy 2 sizes – small, and large. There are many many different styles of washable nappy out there, and the cost can vary largely, but if you were to say that it would cost you around £75 to kit a baby out thoroughly then you wouldn’t be far wrong. Don’t worry about learning to fold them, modern washable nappies can be bought which are pre-shaped!

Then you have to take into account the cost of washing, but when you leave nappies to soak in a bucket first, you’re maybe talking an extra 3 loads of washing a week. (The cost of doing 1 load of washing will vary according to what you use – if you use washing tablets then it will be around 30p per wash, if you use soapnuts it will be around 8p per wash). Even taking it as a little over this and saying an average of £1 per week for washing, that will work out to a total cost including nappies and washing costs of just over £200 per baby, over 2.5 years, giving you a grand saving of around £700.

Once you’ve bought nappies and wraps, you’ll be able to use them for any subsequent children you have, and therefore the costs will be even lower per child. Imagine being able to put £700 into a child’s savings fund JUST because you chose to be green and use washable nappies instead of disposable ones, and also knowing you’d helped to keep over 5000 nappies from going into the ground too!
Find out more from the Real Nappy Campaign, and The Nappy Lady websites.

By Vialdana

Useful links – http://www.babykind.co.uk/nappytrial.htm#hire