I'm beginning to get to grips with various attempts to address the environmental impact of nappy use.  Biodegradable seems to be one idea with a small range of disposable brands making claims to be so.   So far it seems to be true that:

Only nappies without the super-absorbant gels (sodium polyacrylate)  may be biodegradable

Conditions in mainstream landfill are such that even biodegradable/compostable nappies will not break down

Therefore these are only an environmental option if you compost them yourselves.

Does anyone have any experience of sucessfully composting nappies?  If so, did it not require a large volume of other waste to mix with it?  Did it work in the winter?

Perhaps some of the statements above are not wholly correct?

I thought it was the case that Weenees were the only truly biodegrdable disposable as they contained no plastic and no Gels at all.They were just a pad that you fitted into a wrap. They come from Australia but I don't think anyone is importing them anymore. I do know some poeple who home composted weenee pads - I shall see if I can gte them to register on here and post their experiences. I only ever composted about 5 in total but can confirm that they did indeed fully disappear.

Any other "biodegradable" nappy would need a huge compost bin/ area to cope with the number oi nappies that would go into it. I did try composting a Moltex nappy at the same time as a weenee pad and it never really boke down - it always kept it's shape. There used to be a video / photographs on the weenee website that showed the differences in biodegradability.

I too understand that a British landfill is not conducive to "biodegradable" nappies breaking down, due to the way it is squashed down each day.

There is a company here in Ireland that sell nearly exclusively the eco-disposable nappies. They have conducted lots of studies with regards to composting them. They even have instructions on how to do this. As far as I know though you have to make a compost area in the garden, similar to a raised planting bed. Contact me if you wish and I can give you their details.
Monica.

There is of course the difference between biodegradable and compostable. The gel used is actually added to soil by gardeners to help water retention!

You can also reduce your reliance on nappies by using elimination communication or natural infant hygiene. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elimin...unication. Basically a newborn baby's need to wee or poo is fairly predictable and they can communicate it. Most people who do it in this country will combine with cloth nappies and it can considerably reduce the number of nappies used, and helps foster good communication between parent and baby.

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Any other "biodegradable" nappy would need a huge compost bin/ area to cope with the number oi nappies that would go into it. I did try composting a Moltex nappy at the same time as a weenee pad and it never really boke down - it always kept it's shape. There used to be a video / photographs on the weenee website that showed the differences in biodegradability.