Nappies in a Pail

I'm a lover of nappies in a pail. Not so much the soiled stinky ones, but I do get real satisfaction from filling up the nappy pail with cloth nappies. After washing them, I enjoy pulling them out the machine and oh hanging them on the line. Yes that is satisfying especially if there's a breeze.

I use shaped nappies and wraps, prefolds, bamboo squares, Bumgenious, Nature babies, Diddy Diapers, Bambino Mio, One Life, fleece liners - I got a huge pile of seconds from a local supplier. And they're all great. I even use cloth wipes, and thinking about buying some for me apres wees to save loo roll.

Today as I was soaking them, I wondered how many do we use? In the first few months of having twins we used about 14 nappies a day between them, as they got older they use less but I'd say we use 6-8 a day now. So being a year old.. Let me estimate they have used 2,779 nappies. By the time they have decided to use no nappies, I estimate that we'll have used 7,159 nappies. Apparently most babies use 8,000-10,000 each in 3 years so I've grossly underestimated. I guess if we used only disposables, that'd fill a room or two? So I personally couldn't live with putting that much waste in landfill.

But it's so easy to do. So easy to throw those nappies in the bin and never think of them again, conveniently lost in the fortnightly collection.

I admit, at the moment I still use Eco disposables at night, if I can really call them that. Perhaps if I work out how many we will use in the next two years I'll make the change to total cloth nappies. Right 1,465 nappies. Okay... That's a lot. It's worth a try especially at 13p a nappy. So I'd save £189.80 by not using a disposable at night.

I think about buying any friend that's had a baby just one cloth nappy and a couple of cloth wipes - if that nappy is used just twice a week for two years - then that's saving 208 nappies going to landfill.

Come on! Let's make the change.