It is no wonder that more and more people are dumping disposable nappies in favour of re-usables. 'Real nappies' are a no-brainer in environmental terms. Sure, they require a bit more effort as Jen Howze argues on the Alpha Mummy blog; but then so does recycling (all those bottles, cans and newspapers piling up by the front door). And on the nappy front, a small change can make a big difference to the environment and your pocket. Not convinced? Here are 10 reasons why you should think very hard about using real nappies:

The guilt factors

- Your child will use 4,500 nappies before toilet training. That produces the equivalent to 130 black bin-bags full.

- A (very smelly) mountain of 8 million nappies are disposed of DAILY; that's up to 750,000 tonnes of waste a year. For every ??1 spent on disposable nappies, there is a cost to the taxpayer of 10p to dispose of them.

- More disposable nappies are found in UK household waste than anything else - they make up about 4 per cent of our rubbish. The majority of them end up in landfill - and space is running out.

- Disposable nappies take 200 to 500 years to decompose and release methane gasses as they do so.

Money talks

- Home-laundered nappies could save parents around ??500 per child; more if you re-use them for subsequent offspring.

- There are incentive schemes to encourage parents to convert to real nappies. Check out what's available in your area by searching here 

But I'm too busy

- Consider using a nappy laundering service

- Or what about going the re-usable route part time, say at weekends and evenings?

But laundering re-usable nappies uses lots of energy

- There is no point using cloth nappies if you are going to launder them at 90^oC, tumble dry and iron them. Wash at max 60^oC; hang nappies out to dry; avoid using unnecessary chemicals and use and eco-detergent; NEVER iron them.

I just don't believe the hype

- A study by the Environment Agency assessed the impact of disposable and re-usable nappies and concluded that "there is little or nothing to choose between them". It said that the damage caused by burying disposables in landfill sites was matched by the electricity and greenhouse gases generated by washing and drying cloth nappies. However this report was widely criticised because, amongst other things, it assumed that nappies would be washed at 90^oC and tumble dried.

OK, I'd like to know more...

Babies Nappies - a blog dedicated to eco nappies

The real nappy campaign - resources for parents

The women's environmental network - useful links and facts

Fill-your-pants.com - "more pant fill, less landfill"

How to green your baby from Treehugger

The Netmums guide to nappies

Posted by Lucia Adams