Possible “nappy tax” on disposables

As a grandma looking after two twelve month olds for two days a week to help out my daughters working to pay their mortgages I would gladly pay more tax on disposable nappies for the sake of my sanity ! Also I do not see how having my washing machine and dryer going for hours would help save the planet, better to use the extra tax raised for development of more eco friendly disposables.

My grandson was in modern cloth nappies. They proved to be no more tricky than disposable ones. He never once suffered from nappy rash. His mother was working full time and once she got her head around a routine didn't find these nappies onerous. His nursery was happy to use them too. In fact they used to look forward to seeing which bright and jazzy outer cover he was wearing. To be honest, it's a choice and choices have consequences, whether they affect us directly or indirectly.

Theworriedwell I suggested that two or three familes could get together to share one big load in the biggest machine. This was not a launderette. Just a battery of great big stainless steel machines standing outside in the car park - and they spin nearly dry so no tumble drying is required, so ideal for people in cramped housing with no drying space.

We are conflating two different problems, first that billions, yes, billions of nappies are being consigned to land fill when landfill is in short supply and they continue to pollute thee soil and run-off for 100s of years - and then there is a problem of poverty. Are we to continue to pollute the atmosphere, accelerate Global Warming and ruin everybodies life just because some people are poor?

Surely we should address the problem of poverty quite separately. If everything and all progress were to be held back because some members of society were poor, and that has included members of my own family in the past, then we would still be living in thatched wooden huts and scratching small subsistence fields with hoes.

If this becomes law then I would expect manufacturers to follow suit with biodegradable disposable nappies - there may already be some available, no kids here so I don't know personally.

M0nica

Theworriedwell I suggested that two or three familes could get together to share one big load in the biggest machine. This was not a launderette. Just a battery of great big stainless steel machines standing outside in the car park - and they spin nearly dry so no tumble drying is required, so ideal for people in cramped housing with no drying space.

We are conflating two different problems, first that billions, yes, billions of nappies are being consigned to land fill when landfill is in short supply and they continue to pollute thee soil and run-off for 100s of years - and then there is a problem of poverty. Are we to continue to pollute the atmosphere, accelerate Global Warming and ruin everybodies life just because some people are poor?

Surely we should address the problem of poverty quite separately. If everything and all progress were to be held back because some members of society were poor, and that has included members of my own family in the past, then we would still be living in thatched wooden huts and scratching small subsistence fields with hoes.

You also said, "I have seen a few of these in the UK and here are still lauderettes around. I used one to locally to wash a duvet."

Don't you think the launderette is expensive?

I'm not sure why washing machines and tumble dryers are such an issue, I used to do my nappies with a bucket and some napisan. An airer draped with nappies used to be quite normal in winter. I also worked fulltime.

To be fair it is sometime since I used a launderette and I cannot remember how much it cost, but buying a domestic washing machine costs money, even a second hand one, and running it also costs money.

It is like having a car and using taxis. Taxis are expensive, as is running a car, but if you are not running a car, the cost of that will pay for a lot of taxis.

But you seem to miss my main point that is poverty is a problem on its own standing and should be treated separately from the problem of the harm done to the environment by disposable nappies.

Are we to do catastrophic damage to the environment by poisoning the land by burying billions of nappies every year or add increasing CO emissions to the air around us helping the rapid rise in Global warming by incinerating them because some people are poor? isn't better to look to the solutions to both problems and not make one hold back the second.

M0nica

To be fair it is sometime since I used a launderette and I cannot remember how much it cost, but buying a domestic washing machine costs money, even a second hand one, and running it also costs money.

It is like having a car and using taxis. Taxis are expensive, as is running a car, but if you are not running a car, the cost of that will pay for a lot of taxis.

But you seem to miss my main point that is poverty is a problem on its own standing and should be treated separately from the problem of the harm done to the environment by disposable nappies.

Are we to do catastrophic damage to the environment by poisoning the land by burying billions of nappies every year or add increasing CO emissions to the air around us helping the rapid rise in Global warming by incinerating them because some people are poor? isn't better to look to the solutions to both problems and not make one hold back the second.

I still think the old bucket and napisan works well with no washing machine needed.

It may well do.

Sometimes the old ways are not better! I can’t imagine anything worse than hand washing terry nappies even after being soaked in napisan. How on earth do you get them dry enough to be hung up on an airier without a wringer or spin dryer? You must have had dripping nappies all over the place for days!

I used terry nappies in the 1980s and can still remember the acrid stink from the nappy bucket sat next to the toilet, even using napisan could not mask it. And having to scrape off the poo from the liner or nappy into the toilet before soaking it!

When I went back to work, the nursery my 6 month old son went to would only use disposable nappies and sold them to mums in bulk. I still used terry nappies at night and weekends but found loads of excuses to use the disposable ones if I could. Even with a washing machine, the extra washing while working full time was a nightmare. When my next child was born, my husband bought a tumble drier as a gift for me - much appreciated.

The answer to the problem of getting rid of disposable nappies is to invest money in making them biodegradable so that they don’t go to landfill. The powers that be also need to look at incontinence products which are also a huge problem in landfill.

I had a spin dryer, couldn't afford a washing machine. I changed the bucket every day and it didn't smell.

Not sure about the issue of scraping poo off a nappy liner, you are supposed to do that with disposables aren't you? It used to be on the packets when DIL left a packet for me when I was looking after GC.

Disposables piling up in landfill is bad enough but loads of poo as well is pretty disgusting.

i used to hang out washed nappies in the back garden but not everyone has a garden. When there was an overnight frost the nappies became lovely and soft.
Never found out why?

Isn't the answer some invention that deals with all sanitary products. It would have to be a chemical, I suppose, to break down all those 'drying' ingredients in sanitary towels/ nappies/incontinent pads. If only these dirty articles could be broken down into, for example, a product for use in industry, it would be great.

icanhandthemback

My daughter uses washable nappies with her 2 year old and has for the last 18 months. They are vastly different from the Terry nappies we used with my children.

grandtanteJE65 can you point to the research that says that not changing nappies leads to the chronic inflammation of the bladder later on? I'm not sure how that computes as we now know that a stretchy bladder which doesn't empty as often as it should because we don't get the signals is problematic and leads to chronic inflammation. Anybody who has lax joints (used to be known as double jointed) is more likely to suffer that could be prone to that. They also wouldn't need their nappy changed as often as it wouldn't be wet but then it would flood as the bladder released its very full contents. Those little girls (and boys) would possibly suffer regular UTI's because of the bacteria which would inflame the bladder. Changing the nappies more frequently would do nothing to help nappy rash or stop bladder problems.

No, sorry, I haven't been able to find the source for the problems being related to children being left in wet nappies too long, but it was being researched in Danish hospitals some years ago.

I can assure you that any child I have ever looked after who had a nappy rash suffered far less when never left in a wet nappy and washed in cool water every time his or he nappy was changed. Giving the children more cold water to drink too, thus increasing the flow of urine but decreasing its strenght helped against nappy rash as well.

I got the eco-friendly disposable nappies for my daughter, she was excited to use them but they all either fell apart or leaked.