Price

Using cloth nappies saves up to £1,100 per child when compared to the cost of disposable nappies.

A full set of modern cloth nappies will cost anything from £100 to £400, whereas the average cost of disposable nappies for one child is estimated to be about £40 per month, which is £1,200 for two and a half years in nappies.

Even more cost savings can be made if washable wipes are used and if the nappies are used for more than 1 child!

See our cost savings calculations for more details -

Chemicals

Disposable nappies are are in reality a complex industrial product containing hazardous substances. One of these is a wetting agent on the top sheet called nonyl phenyl ethoxylate, which is now known to be an oestrogen mimic associated with sex changes in fish. This chemical is being phased out in Germany.

Disposable nappies also have other side-effects that are thought to be associated with fertility problems. Check out this link - a study measuring the temperature of the scrotum in boys, comparing disposable nappies with cloth nappies.

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2000-09/BSJ-Dnme-2409100.php

Environment

Seven million trees are cut down each year to supply the paper pulp to make disposable nappies in the UK. Cotton nappies use three and a half times less energy in their manufacture, produce 60 times less waste and involve the consumption of less water, including laundering, than disposable nappies do.

For every £1 that is spent on disposables it costs the taxpayers 10p to dispose of the resulting waste - that's £40 million every year.

There has been a lot of debate on the environmental issue. This article from a writer for the Guardian sums it all up very well :

www.guardian.co.uk/society/2005/may/20/environment.ethicalliving