Because our planet isn’t disposable
How many disposable nappies can we keep out of landfill?
The NHS – UK's National Health Service – suggests young babies need changing as many as 10 or 12 times a day, while older babies need to be changed at least 6 to 8 times.
Changing your baby on average seven times a day, means that you could go through 4,000 to 6,000 disposable nappies for one child alone during their nappy wearing stage. Compare that environmental and financial cost to just 20 to 30 pēpi reusable nappies.
It’s hard to visualise, but more than eight million disposable nappies go into landfill sites every day in the UK alone (almost three billion disposable nappies a year!). And then there’s all the plastic that disposable diapers are packaged in.
Each time you use a pēpi reusable nappy, that’s one less disposable heading for landfill.
Disposable nappies and the environment
Disposable nappies are made out of plastic polymer polypropylene (that sits next to baby's skin), with core of fluff pulp and SAP, (an absorbent polymer).
How fast a disposable nappy breaks down depends on the landfill site. But research shows it can take up to 500 years to completely decompose. (If Shakespeare’s mum had put him in disposables, they’d still be in a West Midlands rubbish dump.) During those five centuries, that nappy releases the greenhouse gas methane into the atmosphere and toxic liquids into the soil, polluting waterways and harming microorganisms, plants, animals and humans.
Reducing our impact while using reusable nappiesAlong with keeping disposables out of landfill, there are plenty of other ways we can make reusables the sustainable choice
- Using an energy efficient washing machine
- Wash a full load, set at a lower temperature
- Add other laundry items to the main wash
- Air dry inserts instead of tumble drying
- Use an environmentally responsible detergent and avoid fabric conditioners
- Reuse nappies with your next baby
- Buy a brand that uses responsible packaging. Our smaller orders are packed using a Bio Poly Mailer. A light-weight mailing bag, made from natural materials (natural resin) and is fully biodegradable, ‘OK Compost!’ certified and vegan. Gift sets and larger orders are packed using a cardboard mailing box with black water-based ink made from a minimum of 90% recycled material and fully recyclable. Biodegradable and compostable. Our custom tissue paper is bio-degradable, compostable, plastic free (contains no petroleum based plastics), and the main ingredient is a recycled material.
Choose to reuse, and together we’ll untrash our planet.