Oh dear, another piece of Green propaganda makes headway.
Aided by modern materials and a redesign, the washable nappy has spread across social classes to vie for the affections of parents in the wake of arguments by campaigners that they are more environmentally friendly.
The impact on landfill sites is cited as the single biggest problem with single-use throwaway nappies. Each baby is estimated to go through 4,500 before being trusted to give his or her parents sufficient warning to get to a loo in time.
The problem is that there are no environmental advantages to washable nappies, once you do a proper cost benefit analysis. As, in fact, the Government did.
Yes, disposables take time to decompose: but washables have to be washed. The costs in terms of energy and emissions of the latter just about equal the benefits of not having the landfills.
6 responses so far ↓
1 Roger Thornhill // Apr 28, 2008 at 10:31 am
Someone on Penn & Teller worked out that if the US did NOT reduce waste output and continued to grow in population and consumption/waste, an area 5miles square would serve as a landfill site for approximately…..1000 years.
“running out of landfill” is like saying in 5 years the current stock of Marmite will be exhausted ergo Marmite tax!!! No more Marmite!!!
Solution: Make more.
2 Bob Stanley // Apr 28, 2008 at 11:28 am
They’re awfully troublesome, those proper cost-benefit analyses. Since then all the new taxes & red-tape on landfill might have made washables more attractive. Albeit at taxpayers expense.
3 PC6300 // Apr 28, 2008 at 2:31 pm
It is nice to see the environmental movement recycles paper, plastic, and outdated arguments. I thought we took the “running out of landfills” argument behind the woodshed and put it out of its misery.
4 BlacquesJacquesShellacques // Apr 28, 2008 at 3:36 pm
Buncha mealy mouthed wimps. The problem is: Shit, Crap, Scheisse, Merde, and plenty of it. I operate a 54 suite apartment building with common washing machine facilities for our tenants.
We will never, NEVER, allow those machines to be used for the washing of ‘Nappies’, which is PC speak for ‘little cloth bags of baby shit’. There is ALWAYS leftover detritus from washing solids. Look under the lid or in back corners of your own machine. Do you want that grunge to include browny-yellow crusty particles of shit?
Do any of the cost benefit analyses include deaths from bacterial infection?
C’mon people, Pasteur figured this out hundreds of years ago.
5 David Gillies // Apr 28, 2008 at 3:52 pm
Exactly, BJS. This is the 21st century. When you have an article of clothing that is covered in crap, the correct response is to THROW IT OUT.
6 dearieme // Apr 28, 2008 at 6:35 pm
And the shit from the washables goes dahnthedryn whereas the shit from the disposable makes Tim’s beloved landfill methane.
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