The Facts about Disposable Nappies

Disposable Nappies

 When I had my two girls I have to admit to using disposable nappies mostly because of the fact that it was the most convenient way of managing. Given that I breast fed Stephanie for 13mts and Victoria for 7mts, I reckoned that I wouldn't have had time to deal with the cloth nappies.  As a new mum I was so consumed by this little miracle that I gave birth to, that I chose the most convenient way and therefore went the disposable route. So years later when I learned the facts surrounding the disposal and subsequent effect of disposable nappies  had on the planet I was shocked and horrified! I have put together a few interesting facts about this so here goes... You can make up our own mind

• The use of disposable nappies has increased over the past 20 years as a result of their convenience.  A baby will use 6,000 disposable nappies before being potty trained at an average age of 2.5 years

• In the UK around 3 billion disposable nappies are used every year - generating about a half a million tonnes of waste

• They take 500 years to decompose

• Up to now, nappies, adult incontinence and feminine hygiene products (AHPS) have been one of the few remaining household items that go straight to landfill or incineration facilities.

• The challenge of how to dispose of municipal waste exists throughout the world.

• The most common methods of waste disposal, land filling, incineration or composting, pose many environmental concerns and simply can't handle the massive waste streams that are generated globally

However I do have an exciting piece of good news about a company called 'Knowaste' 

Knowaste's recycling process is the world's first, environmentally friendly, and cost effective solution to meeting the global challenge of disposing Absorbent Hygiene Products (AHPs): nappies, adult incontinence and feminine hygiene products. 

Knowaste's

The process involves three key stages:

1. Used nappies, adult incontinence and feminine hygiene products (AHPs) are collected and transported to a Knowaste plant.
2. The Knowaste process sterilizes the AHP material, deactivates and mechanically separates the individual components:  organic residue, plastic and super absorbent polymers.
3. The reclaimed components can then be made into recycled products such as:

Plastic wood Plastic roofing tiles Absorption materials Recycled paper products Green energy     Thankfully there is a renewed interest in the using the cloth nappies and with so much choice out there you won't be disappointed. I don't stock any of the organic cloth nappies as yet but I do intend to do in the near future - so watch this space as I will dedicate one of my blogs and showcase a few of them!

www.organicbabyclothesdirect.com

Best wishes
Jacqueline