Comments on: I love nappies/diapers (really!)

By: poohbaby

poohbaby — Fri, 27 Jul 2007 16:13:05 +0000

I love nappies too i have always had the inner child in me come out and even now the thought of wearing nappies is unbelievable, i mainly use disposable i know this dosnt help the involment put they are easier to use and dispos .I do have a few cloth nappies and plastic pants so i could change to cloth instead of disposables but when you get used to using throw away item it hard to turn back.

By: I Love Nappies 2! « A Cup of Coffee

I Love Nappies 2! « A Cup of Coffee — Mon, 11 Jun 2007 10:01:20 +0000

[...] 11th, 2007 by Sharon A while back I noted that my “I Love Nappies” post was one of the most popular on this blog, and that I would follow it up with a post on [...]

By: Eco-Crimes in South-East Asia « Sad Little Garden

Eco-Crimes in South-East Asia « Sad Little Garden — Tue, 13 Mar 2007 01:05:06 +0000

[...] if you’re wondering why real nappies are cool, Sharon has written a very helpful post here. And if you want to read more about the downsides to disposables in general, then try this post by [...]

By: Sharon

Sharon — Mon, 26 Feb 2007 10:23:33 +0000

I’m pretty sure I got that stat from Zero Waste but the page has been undated since I originally wrote the post last year and I can’t find it any longer. I’ll do a bit of digging and see what I can come up with for you.
Good luck with your nappy trial!

By: Meaghan

Meaghan — Mon, 26 Feb 2007 10:05:18 +0000

Hello

Can I please ask where you got this stat?

*It takes 4.5 trees to make the pulp used in “disposable” nappies for one baby over 2 1/2 years (ie: 7 million trees a year are felled for UK babies, 1.3 million trees for NZ babies)

I am organising a nappy trial in Melbourne, and would like to compare the amount of water, oil, CO2 emitted from using both cloth and disposable nappies. I read the UK Environment Agency’s report on the Life Cycle of both cloth and disposable nappies,
http://www.environment-agency.gov.uk/commondata/acrobat/nappies_1072099.pdf
and the report has omitted the water required to grow trees (required to make 425 kilo of pulp). Very odd. Even more odd, when I sent an email to the Agency pointing out the issue, they have siad that they did not write the report themselves, and to the best of thier knowleadge, it is correct - this is despite telling them that

It looks like the consulting firm that compiled the Life Cycle Assessment of Disposable and Reusable Nappies Report has omitted the water needed to grow the trees (required to produce 425 kilograms of fluff pulp) in the Life Cycle Assessment.

This is despite mentioning on page 5 of the report that…

the flows associated with the fluff pulp used in disposables were traced back to paper and forest growth. For cloth nappies, the flows were traced back to cotton growth and production.

On page 88 of the report in table 7.3 ‘Inventory analysis: disposable nappy manufacture’, it states that 17,700kg of water is required for fluff pulp.

Given that on average it takes 35kgm3 of water to make a tonne of pulp, (source: http://ec.europa.eu/research/growth/gcc/projects/sustainability-pp.html), this equates to approximately 14,875 kg of water required to make 425 kg of pulp.

I am researching how much water it really takes to make a disposable, but the data is not easy to find. I am interested to see where your data is sourced from.

Best wishes

Meaghan

By: Nappy edit « A Cup of Coffee

Nappy edit « A Cup of Coffee — Sat, 24 Feb 2007 08:52:38 +0000

[...] For some reason my “I love nappies” post is one of my most popular posts, probably the result of searches such as “cost of [...]

By: Very useful words « A Cup of Coffee

Very useful words « A Cup of Coffee — Mon, 29 Jan 2007 10:19:13 +0000

[...] thoughts about this. It makes me a little sad, my baby is no longer a baby. I’ll miss her cute cloth bum… although I definitely won’t miss the [...]