Summary Of Findings

Impact

Every nappy has an environmental impact. The life cycle of a nappy can be split into three components: Manufacture Use Disposal. Follow the links on the contents page for more details. Disposable nappies have the most impact in the manufacture and disposal stage. Reusable nappies have most impact in the Use stage. There is much controversy surrounding the value of the data that has been produced, with the disposable nappy companies under tremendous economic pressure to maintain the popularity of their product. This is heightened by the drop in birth rate in the western world.

Variables with Reusable Nappies

There are many variables within the impact of reusable nappies: There is the choice between purchasing organic or non organic nappies. How you wash and treat the nappies. For example more water is used if you soak and pre-wash your nappies. More energy is consumed if you use hotter water, tumble dry and wash fewer nappies per load. You are in control of the level of chemicals you allow to enter the water systems during the soaking/washing stage. Using reusable nappies would save the tax payer £40million per year. (2) which could be spent on improving environmental technologies.