Which is best for the environment, cloth or disposables? That's a very difficult one to call in the light of current studies. It is frequently stated by AHPMA (the disposable nappy manufacturer's trade association) that there is little to choose between cloth and disposables when it comes to environmental damage. Now I personally find that a little hard to understand. Not because I believe cloth is better, but simply because we cannot say for certain that ALL cloth nappies are better or the same as disposables. The fact is, there are a very wide variety of cloth nappies in use these days. There are also wide variations in the way they are then treated within the family home. Lets look at two different scenarios.

A white standard cotton cloth nappy is used for a relatively short time, and thrown away after being outgrown, is washed at 90 degrees frequently, in a strong detergent with lots of optical brighteners, tumble dried all the time, plus soaked in a nappy sanitiser after every use. Plastic covers are used.

An organically grown unbleached cotton nappy is used for more than one child, washed at no more than 60 degrees, with just wet nappies being washed at 40 degrees when possible, not presoaked, a green detergent with no optical brighteners used, reusable liners used, never tumble dried, always line dried, and wool outer covers used.

No one can deny that the second scenario is the greener and kinder to the environment. Therefore I have a major issue with any statement, from anyone, pro cloth or pro disposables, that makes a blanket claim about which is better. The real truth is that it is fairly easy to work out the overall picture with disposables, as they are all very similar . However, cloth has moved on leaps and bounds from Terries and plastic pants and there are many different types, many different fabrics, some much greener in production than others, many different washing machines, various methods of drying, some greener than others, many different detergents, some greener than others, and so on and so on. So you see the problem. 19th May 2005 saw the publication of an Environment agency report (UK) about the differences between cloth and disposable, and yet again, the cloth users seem to have been very poorly represented. According to the Women's Environmental Network, around 2000 typical disposables users were involved, but well under 200 cloth users. Due to the wide variety of cloth nappies available, less than 50 used terries, the rest used other types of cloth nappy, and in one case only 2 people used one type of cloth nappy. These are hardly representative figures and should not really have been used to create an "average" cloth nappy user. To be truly representative, at the very minimum, something along the lines of our two scenarios should have been used, to give the two possible extremes of cloth nappy use. Of course in reality, most families will fall somewhere in the middle, but at least we would be able to see the effect of using a greener washing routine. My own guess is that the second scenario will beat the disposables, but the 1st may not. So, read the rest of this article, make up your own mind, but bear in mind one thing, using cloth nappies gives you a huge amount of control over your own impact on the environment, using disposables does not, its however they come out of the packet, and currently the only workable mass disposal method is landfill. So you can pass the buck to the local authority and all the Council tax payers, or you can take some responsibility for the waste that you and your's produce. Your decision.

If you want to see what the government Environment agency say about this issue, and for a link to the actual report, click here. Also click here to read what the Guardian newspaper had to say about the report.

So why should you use cloth nappies? Oh so many reasons.

Lets first look at disposables. These are undoubtedly convenient. Nothing anyone can say can challenge that. But what price do we pay for that convenience? I have tried to be as objective and non biased as possible in the following text.

Have you ever thought about what is in a disposable nappy? Did you know:-

It takes approximately one full cup of crude oil to make one the plastic for one disposable nappy.

It takes 4 & 1/2 trees to make the pulp to fill the nappies for one baby over 2 & 1/2 years.

The super absorber gel, sodium polyacrylate, can swell in the respiratory or digestive tract of pets and kill. Don't ever let your baby play with a disposable nappy, as the gel granules can get out and the baby could swallow or inhale them. Also, think carefully about letting older children play with disposables, with gel, on dolls.  However, please be aware that it is unlikely, in my view, that the gel is actually toxic, and anyone telling you this is using unethical scaremonger tactics. There is no hard evidence one way or the other. The problems with animals relate to the way that gel granules swell in a moist environment, causing blockages of the the digestive tract or airways. 

Just a quick note about the super absorber that was removed from tampons some years ago, due to concerns about toxic shock syndrome. This was a very different super absorber than that in nappies, and is in no way related to sodium polyacrylate. 

We don't know how long it will take for disposables to fully decompose. Some parts of the nappy (the plastic parts) may never fully decompose. Landfill site conditions aren't terribly good for the efficient breakdown of an item that is often wrapped in several layers of plastic before being buried. 

Human faeces used to be classed as clinical waste and ideally should be incinerated or flushed/washed into the sewerage system. Packets of disposables used to tell you to dispose of solids down the toilet first, but for some mysterious reason, no longer do so.

Each and every baby in full time disposables will create around one tonne of solid waste to be buried in the ground, which costs money, that is added to our Council tax bills. Think about how you feel if you had to bury that in your own back garden. Also, think about the additional dustcart journeys created each year, just to take the extra waste to the landfill site, and all the associated fuel usage and air pollution. 

Approximately 8 million disposable nappies are thrown away each day in Britain alone. According to ITN news, this means we need two whole new landfill sites a year, every year, in the UK, just to deal with disposable nappy waste. The fact is, we live on a relatively small island, and land use is an issue for us, we barely have enough to build new houses on, never mind find sites for new landfill. We must reduce our waste output.  

Producing wood pulp for disposables is especially water intensive. Proctor and Gamble's environmental study in the mid 1990's conveniently "forgets" to include the water used at this stage, and concentrates only on the water usage after manufacture. In fact, if the water at production stage of all nappies is included in the calculations, it is likely that disposables use more water over all than washables. 

A study by Best Foot Forward, an independent organisation who specialise in ecological footprinting, concluded that disposables have 1.8 times the environmental impact of home laundered nappies, and 2.6 times the impact of nappy service laundered nappies. www.bestfootforward.com 

Overall, disposable nappies use 3.5 times more energy, 8 times more non-renewable raw materials, 90 times more renewable materials than washable nappies. www.bestfootforward.com

Disposable nappies produce 2.3 times more waste water (at the production stage) and 60 times more solid waste than washable nappies. www.bestfootforward.com 

Disposable nappies require between 4 and 30 times more land for growing natural materials than washable nappies. www.bestfootforward.com 

Both systems do however use similar amounts of fossil fuels. www.bestfootforward.com  

One last word here, some people will say that many components of a disposable nappy have never been tested on babies. Well, to balance that argument, neither have the cotton nappies and covers. That is just propaganda and more scaremongering. 

I hope I haven't given you too many nightmares thinking about all that, I could go on, but that should be enough to make you think hard about your choice of nappies.

Now lets look at cloth nappies. What is in a cloth nappy?

In most cases just cotton. Pure cotton, nothing more, nothing less. You can choose from organically dgrown cotton and standard cotton, or the greener fabric, hemp.

There is Velcro/Aplix on some, but unlike the similar fixings on disposables, this will be used hundreds of times before you discard it.

Plastic popper fixings, again, these will be used hundreds of times before you discard them. A good wrap will last easily through more than one baby, so the poppers and Velcro/Aplix on those will be used even more.

True, some do contain PVC (notably Kooshies), but once again, this is used many times over before being discarded.

Viscose/rayon soakers (in some nappies), these are made from wood pulp, so will decompose fairly easily in the ground.

Waterproof backing for some wraps. It is a fact of life that many do not want to risk leaks from cloth nappies, so some kind of waterproof wrap is necessary in order that more people use and reuse cloth nappies. The wraps are mostly long lasting with care, so the waterproofing is used hundreds of times possibly before being discarded, unlike the single use of the plastic in a disposable.

Fleece in some wraps, this is synthetic, but is sometimes made of recycled plastic, so can be reasonably environmentally friendly. But above all, it is probably the most durable of wrap materials. This could be passed to your grandchildren, no problem!

Wool is the most green of all the wrap materials, and is very long lasting with care. This is what you should be considering if you want the greenest option of all. Pull on wool covers have no synthetics, not even elastic in them, the most green of all. 

As for the washing, that is up to you. You can be as green as you like about that, using the least detergent you can, or using soap or Eco-Balls or similar. If you want to soak, then try tea tree oil instead of anything chemical. You can wash at 40 degrees if you wish, although 60 is better for germ killing. You don't have to tumble dry. The point is, you have control over the amount of environmental impact your laundering has. You have none with a disposable.

Most cotton crops are sprayed with vast quantities of pesticides, so this is environmental black mark against using ordinary cotton, however, there is now a very good range of organically grown cotton nappies, and I would recommend you consider these if you can afford the slightly higher cost, although there are some cheaper options even in organic cotton, tie on nappies, for example. 

Check the  Women's Environmental Network Web site for more information.

In additional to all these reasons there is of course the issue of money. That is dealt with on the cost comparisons page, but to sum up here, you are burying your money in the ground if you buy disposables, you can save £100's if you choose to use cloth, and the savings increase with each baby you have.  In fact, using washable nappies is one of the few ways you can go green as well as save money. The choice is yours.