Traditional nappies are no more eco- friendly than its disposable counterparts. Ben Bradshaw new health minister of declared this after a four-year study by the Environment Agency concluded that there is nothing or little to chose between them.The agency found that damage caused by burying disposables in landfill sites was equal to the electricity and greenhouse gases produced while washing and drying cloth nappies.
Mr.Bradshaw told the Commons
Reusable nappies may reduce demands on landfill but they still impact on the environment in other ways such as water and energy used in washing and drying them.
The new findings will be welcomed by parents who felt guilty about using disposable nappies.Only five percent of parents use cloth nappies and nearly three billion disposable nappies are thrown away with 90 percent ending up in landfill.
The taxpayers’ alliance said these results of this agency are an embarrassment for the government funded Real Nappy Campaign which had cost taxpayers £2.3 million over last three years.Matthew Elliott, chief executive of the alliance, said
This is a quite farcical waste of taxpayers’ money, and is yet more evidence of how politicians are unable to run programmes effectively.The Government should concentrate on getting politicians out of managing vast government departments and bringing in outside experts to run reformed public services, otherwise we will continue to see more examples of this sort of madness.
The Waste and Resources Action Programme (WRAP), which was responsible for running the Real Nappy Campaign , told that they have been successful in diverting 23,000 tons of disposable nappies away from landfill.
A spokesman said
We are confident that because modern parents are more aware of environmental issues they will be in a position to make an informed decision in their choice of nappies.
In order to promote the use of traditional nappies and reduce the number of nappies that go to landfill the local councils have started to offer gift vouchers or cash awards to mothers using traditional nappies.
Councils that are already running the reuseable nappy scheme include Three Rivers district council,in south west Hertfordshire,which gives parents £80 if they use a nappy laundry service for six months.
Harrow council is nort-west London offers a one time grant of £60 per child to make up for cost of purchasing real cotton nappies.Suffolk and Norfolk county gives a subsidy of £30 .
Via:Telegraph
