Hi early stage Forum Community. I'm Rob, and I'm leading the research for Ethical Consumer's next Buyers Guide to Nappies which is due to appear in the March April 2010 issue of the magazine (EC124). It will be rolled out to the free area of the website around August 2010.

Our readers have made important contributions to the nappies debate in the past, and we reckoned that this subject would be a good one to test out the idea of research forums - whereby ordinary consumers and specialists contribute ideas to our research before it is published. Our deadline for the first draft of the report is January 15th...so don't hold back if you've something to say.

At the end of this post I've put in our draft brand list. This covers the brands that are likely to appear on our ranking and ethiscore tables. Make a post to the forum if you think there are others I've left out - or ones that shouldn't be in. Working on the brand list is one of the first things we do so that we can contact manufacturers to ask for replies to policy questions in time for the copy deadline.

Before then, I'll just quickly list some of the key topics I think we might cover in the report. Is bamboo really as sustainable a material as it is suggested? How compostible are nappies in the right condistions. How practical are re-usuables in difficult circumstances - such as on the train, at the nursery or childminders, and overnight? How should a price comparison work to be fair to lifetime of usage for reusables?

More ideas of subjects to cover very welcome at this stage...as well as answers to these questions.
We are also looking for some parents to share their experiences of trying to use ethical nappies (about 200 words maximum - for the print editions).

Current draft brand list:
RE-USABLES
Mother-ease
Totsbots
Bambinex
Pop-in
BumGenius
Orgainc Terry squares
Diddy Diapers
Little Lamb
Mothercare Smart


DISPOSABLES
Bambo Nature
Nature Boy/Girl
Moltex Oko
Huggies
Boots
Pampers
Mothercare
Tesco
Sainsbury
Asda

Our most recent report before this one is at:
www.ethicalconsumer.org/FreeBuyersGuides/babychild/nappies.aspx

Just seen that they've got 3 blogs on their site, written by mums, about their experiences of using real nappies http://www.goreal.org.uk/blogs

I'm sure you've already thought of this... the environmental cost of washing re-usables vs using disposables.
How many nappies does your average baby go through?

Hi. To balance the article I suggest you include the treatment technology that is being set up to recover pulp, plastic and SAPs from used nappies and other absorbent products. The company setting this up in the UK is called Knowaste and has a website at http://www.knowaste.com/ .

It looks as though you already have information on the previously published Life Cycle Assessment on nappies from the EA.

I'm also aware that tumble drying is a massive impact in the use phase, and going back to your point on how many nappies you need and how quickly you can turn them around for use - some consideration of ability to dry them will be required.

Cheers
Gerrard

Hi
came across this purely by accident researching parabens and nano particles in cosmetics!
However, I am at a crossroads with cloth nappies. I used only cloth with my now 5 year old. He had a variety of brands including organic, bamboo etc, however I have been using Moltex on my 12 month old daughter for a couple of months now although the last pack is almost finished and I have been using the cloth for daytime again. There are 4 reasons:
1) TIME: my son is still not dry at night (on medical advice he does not use pull ups) and the resulting laundry combined with nappies was resulting in about 3 or 4 loads of washing on a bad day.
2) DRYING: nowhere to dry all this laundry when it is raining non stop. Except of course the radiators which causes condensation, the airing cupboard which is too small and of course the tumble dryer.
3) MONEY: having the heating on or using the tumbler is expensive and as a single mother I just can't afford it.
4) ENVIRONMENT: my aim in using cloth nappies is doing my bit but using a tumble dryer and having the heating on to dry the things is not environmentally friendly.

In summary, it is my opinion that drying is the main issue. Most homes do not have alternatives to the garden washing line when it rains. I had thought I could use the greenhouse the other day, but there is no one to hold the baby while I trek out across the lawn with a basket of wet nappies. All my friends are cloth nappy users and ALL of them admit to having to use huge amounts of energy to get them dry
Of course if I was rich I would have a conservatory built but as with most things 'green' most people can't afford to keep up.
As far as brands are concerned pocket nappies made by various brands are the best for the drying problem.

https://www.closeparent.com/our-products/pop-in-nappy/

There are now several nappies on the market that dry really quickly. I am a nappy seller and sell at least 10 different brands, and some of the brands have several different types of nappies. I have a couple of nappies, that are mainly made of microfibre which come out of the washing machine almost dry if you have a half-decent spin on your washing machine. Drying is not an issue when people choose these nappies. One tip that I give to people is to buy one of those multi-pegged sock airers for a £1 shop and dry your nappies on one of them. I got my husband to put a hook in the ceiling above our bath as that is dead space most of the time. From talking to people I would say most cloth-nappy users do not tumble dry their nappies, or only use a tumble dryer to finish them off.

To add to the list I would recommend adding Lollipop nappies to the list. They are a Cornwall based company and their nappies are made in Turkey. Lollipop refuses to airfreight their nappies, so they all arrive in teh UK by land. They even have a label on their nappies showing a crossed out aeroplane to show that they haven't been air-freighted. They also have 2 of these quick-drying nappies that I have just written about. Bumgenius on the other hand are made in Egypt, airfreighted to the US, to be airfreighted back to Ireland and tehn shipped to the UK, I believe.

SallyE

Most Nature nappies are made in Israel whose Apartheid crimes include policies that affect the Palestinian environment and resources.

I posted this complaint on their Facebook page and was ignored. I re-posted it. Nature deleted my posts and banned me from posting again. They submitted a formal statement that they do not do political discussions and that none of the materials are sourced from Occupied Territory. They did not mention whether the factories were in Occupied Territory. They said they demand ethical working standards from their manufacturers, which is meaningless considering what Israel does. Nature admits to investing in a country that occupies, yet state they have no plans to discontinue this practice and called Israel an 'approved ethical supplier'.

They pay lipservice to respecting the opinions of customers because they censored me. Their wholesome image is a greenwash behind which there is an ugly side which they are keen to conceal.

Nature packaging suggests it is a Swedish product. Near the barcode in small print is seen they are manufactured in Israel. Their Website blog and Facebook page is full of things people want to hear, but the things we should know are kept as discreet as possible.

Hi, We are a manufacturer of reusable nappies based in Ireland. We would love to take part of your research. You can contact me on: +353-74-9740443 (we will soon have a UK number) or visit our website: www.littlecomfort.com
Our nappies are 90% bamboo and 10% polyester, made in Turkey. I know you had a deadline but have only come across your research. If we can help in anyway please don't hesitate to contact us.
Kind regards,
Monica Nugent

Thanks monica. The nappies report is now complete and on the subscriber area of the website - it'll be in the free area in 6 months. So it's too late to include your brand. But we revisit the subject every couple of years and we now have a record of littlecomfort.

I'm really grateful to the person who pointed out that Nature nappies are made in Israel. I think they are being quite deceptive about this. 'Made in Israel' is written in tiny letters. They must be embarassed about this and are probably trying to hide it.

I hope that you can publicise this as widely as possible. I've told them I'm not going to buy any more of their products in future.

Thanks,
Michael

t looks as though you already have information on the previously published Life Cycle Assessment on nappies from the EA.

I'm also aware that tumble drying is a massive impact in the use phase, and going back to your point on how many nappies you need and how quickly you can turn them around for use - some consideration of ability to dry them will be required.
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This is an interesting event. I'm pretty sure a lot of people will participate in this!


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nappies