Nappy Recycling

You may have heard about a recycling company called Knowaste, who are planning to open a disposable nappy recycling facility in West Bromwich and you might have even be approached by companies offering you a disposable nappy recycling service.  Whilst, on the face of it, a more environmental approach to the disposal of nappy waste would appear to be a fantastic idea, Go Real have a number of concerns.

Reduce Reuse Recycle!

People might have said: “Reduce, Reuse, Recycle” when talking to you about your household waste.  This phrase describes the ideal way to manage our waste from the most to the least desirable and is also known as the ‘waste hierarchy’.  Before we even think about recycling we should be considering how we can firstly reduce the waste we produce, secondly reuse items and then finally whether it can be recycled.

Real nappies help parents to both reduce and reuse which not only helps to lessen nappy waste going to landfill but also cuts down the number of resources used to make nappies, many of which, in the case of the disposables, comes from non-renewable sources.

Better for the environment?

Although saving waste from landfill is an important issue, and one that we are supportive of, it is important that the actions undertaken to do this, do not cause a more harmful impact to the environment in other ways.  For example, the energy used during the process, the water consumption, the transport of the waste and the disposal of any remaining waste.  There is currently no independent research to show that the nappy recycling system proposed by Knowaste will be better for the environment overall and there are some concerns that it might even be worse.

It is also important to remember that currently there are no nappy recycling plants in the UK and so companies that are offering you a nappy recycling service now will be dealing with the nappy waste in other ways, most likely through energy to waste incineration.  This can not be considered as recycling, is not without its own environmental impact and is currently already provided by some Local Authorities as a disposal method covered by your council tax.  Energy created through burning waste is not normally classed as ‘renewable energy’ as it must meet strict criteria to reach this classification, (click here for further details). Please also consider that the proposed nappy recycling plant may not be operational by the time your baby has potty trained.

Money, Money, Money

We are also concerned about how much the nappy recycling service will cost.  Current services are being offered at £250 for a 2 year contract which greatly increases the cost of using disposable nappies and makes the savings of Real Nappies even more attractive, particularly when you consider that it is possible to buy everything you need to use Real Nappies for around £250.

Many new families will struggle to meet this additional cost which will be on top of the council tax they already pay which covers their current waste disposal and recycling collections.  The prohibitive cost may mean that nappies have to travel from all over the country to meet the companies projected quotas.  Buying cheaper nappies to make savings that will then cover the additional cost of the collection would also not necessarily be good for the environment.  In this case you need to consider a range of factors like quality, comfort and source materials.

Go Real are confident that Real Nappies remain the most environmentally friendly way of using nappies and whilst we welcome innovative ways to deal with disposable nappy waste we would always like to see independent research to back up any environmental claims.