New scheme to tempt parents to switch to re-usable nappies launches today

Macarena Honorato, who lives in Inchicore, has a 20-month-old baby boy, still in nappies.

Recently, her own mother pulled out some old pieces of muslin that she used for nappies when Honorato was a baby herself – along with the pins to fasten the nappies shut.

“I was like, ‘This is not safe at all’. They were metal ones back in the day. How did we survive?” Honorato said by phone on Thursday, laughing.

But reusable cloth nappies have come a long way since, says Kate Doyle of the Cloth Nappy Library Ireland. Now, they have an absorbent cloth layer, and a water-resistant outer layer.

It's just like a disposable nappy but you put it in the washing machine, she says – and it can be used again over years if a parent has more children.

“What's available today for parents is significantly easier than what your mum used to do,” she says. “It's a viable, practical solution.”

Because there is a problem with the disposables.

At last count by the Environmental Protection Agency, in 2022, about 10 percent of the waste in households' black bins in Ireland was disposable nappies.

"It's a huge source of waste, the disposable, single-use plastic nappies,” says Abi O'Callaghan-Platt, director of policy with the environmental group Voice Ireland. “But it’s one people don't really consider because it's just such a norm."

Voice Ireland has worked with councils across Ireland in recent years on schemes to try to renormalise cloth nappies, and tackle the nappy-waste mountain – and it's now launching one with Dublin City Council.

Under the scheme, people can apply to Voice Ireland, as funded by the participating councils, for a free voucher for a cloth nappy starter kit. Inside, are 10 “birth to potty” cloth nappies, 12 reusable cloth wipes and a storage bag.

Cloth Nappy Library Ireland also runs free workshops and support groups, to share how to properly wash and maintain cloth nappies.

The modern cloth nappy isn’t as “fiddly” as they once were, says Doyle. “They come in a one-piece design. You pick it up and you put it on the baby in one step, there's no folding."

Waste of waste

So far, cloth nappy schemes have been set up by six other councils in Ireland.

“The majority of them promote it through the hospitals, so if you go to a maternity hospital, there's a poster there in the antenatal clinic, and you can just scan the QR code and be taken to the website,” says O'Callaghan-Platt of Voice Ireland.

But supplies don’t last long, she says. They're popular.

Honorato says she had no idea that reusable nappies had progressed. She is now really keen to give them a try with her baby boy, she says.

Those who do try generally find it positive, according to follow-up surveys by Voice Ireland, which everyone who participates in schemes must commit to.

In Munster, 76 percent of participating households in a 2023 scheme more than halved their reliance on disposables, it found. More than 90 percent said they are likely to continue using cloth nappies, and more than 80 percent would recommend cloth nappies to others.

O'Callaghan-Platt points to the research by the UK government on environmental benefits of switching to reusables.  

Reusables have a 25 percent lower carbon footprint than single-use alternatives, found the UK Department of Environment's 2023 Life Cycle Assessment of Disposable and Reusable Nappies.

Also, reusable cloth nappies are cheaper over time, said O’Callaghan-Platt – especially if the parents and caregivers look after several kids.

Options

You don’t have to go fully reusable, says Doyle, of the Cloth Nappy Library, who also runs her own reusable nappy company, EcoKinly.

“When you hear someone on the radio asking you to get the bus to work today, or cycle to school, they’re not telling you to sell your car and switch entirely to the bus – it’s kind of like that with reusables,” she says.

Some parents might only use them at night time, or every other day, she says. Some people just use the reusable wipes, or reusable swim nappies, she says.

But the more people know these are options, the better, she says.

That's why the Cloth Nappy Library, a non-profit organisation, offers nappy loan kits, so people can try them for a while first off.

Volunteers dotted around the country can hand over a try-before-you-buy kit, with a mix of styles and brands, for between €20 and €30.

They’ll post them too, says Doyle. People can keep them for various lengths of time, depending how young the baby is.

If going full-time with reusable nappies, people need between 20 and 25 in their rotation, says Doyle. But it depends if they still want to mix them with disposable ones, she said.

Honorato says that while she is part of a parents' group who share toys and clothes, she isn’t sure about using borrowed library nappies – but is fully on board with making a switch to reusables.

There is the savings sure, she says. But mainly for her, the attraction is environmental. “If we can try a little bit to not be part of that 10 percent,” she says.

Funded by the Local Democracy Reporting Scheme.