Green nappies

According to Cotton Bottoms laundry service, which provides the nappy laundry service to a number of hospitals in southern England, 25% of parents of babies born at St Richard's Hospital in Chichester have continued to use their nappy laundry service. At the same time the hospital has made additional savings on the cost of buying disposable nappies. Using real nappies on hospital wards also saves hospitals the cost of incinerating disposables as clinical waste.

St Richard's Hospital in Chichester is part of the award winning West Sussex Real Nappy Initiative involving West Sussex County Council and Cotton Bottoms nappy laundry service. In this innovative scheme, West Sussex County Council are offering a £30 cashback incentive to anyone continuing to use real nappies over a prolonged period, whether they wash their own or use a laundry service. This is financed by the potential savings made through diverting those nappies from landfill. Julie Wilkinson, Recycling Manager at West Sussex County Council is pleased with its success 'So far, 810 people have registered with the scheme which means that a potential 5.3 million nappies have been diverted from landfill.'

Nappy facts - the cost

• With real nappies hospitals make significant savings on incineration costs and the supplying disposable nappies.
• Local authorities save money because they don't have to get rid of their nappy mountains.
• Parents who choose real nappies can save £600 with their first child. This increases with second and subsequent children where the nappies can be reused.
• Some nappy suppliers have established payment schemes to spread the initial cost of buying a full set of real nappies.
• The Nappy Exchange Service has been set up to provide a source of second-hand real nappies.