COUNCIL INCENTIVE SCHEMES ACROSS THE UK
More and more councils are providing incentives and cashback for families wanting to use cloth nappies. Councils are facing ever greater environmental concern over landfill. Disposable nappies account for over 4% of waste that local authorities send to landfill. Every single used disposable nappy is still sitting in landfill. It takes many hundreds of years to biodegrade. Even so called 'environmentally friendly' disposables cannot biodegrade in landfill conditions.
To see how you can benefit from any cashback or other incentive your council might offer please visit their website. You will usually find a section about cloth nappies under the waste management section.
We do our best to keep up to date with cashbacks and incentives. This list is not exhaustive and if you know of a council that has a scheme and is not listed here please let us know.
Read what the Women's Environmental network has to say about the Waste issues of Disposable Nappies
Source: Women's Environmental Network (www.wen.org.uk)
Waste
Nearly 3 billion nappies are thrown away in the UK every year.5 The vast majority of these (90%) end up in landfill.6 Nearly 8 million nappies are thrown away every day in the UK.7 We do not know how long it takes for the plastics in disposable nappies to decompose but it could take hundreds of years. With a nappy disposal cost to each local authority in hundreds of thousands of pounds per year (Nottinghamshire Council, for example, estimates over £1 million per year8 while Bristol City Council estimates a £500,000 cost.9) it is not surprising that nappy schemes now play a key role in local authorities' waste strategies.10
Landfill space is running out. In addition, the European Landfill Directive and national government policies are driving local authorities to reduce the amount of municipal waste sent to landfill.11 The local authorities are struggling to stop waste amounts increasing, and so pressure is increased to turn to alternatives such as incineration .12 Incineration is not a trouble free solution13 and emissions from incinerators cause controversy wherever they are sited.
Waste prevention at source is the most effective way of reducing our rubbish. The Cabinet Office Strategy Unit’s stressed the importance of promoting real nappies: 'Even modest initiatives to displace disposable nappy use with reusable nappies can have a significant waste minimisation impact.'14 This has been taken up by Defra who have backed a scheme to promote real nappies .15
WE ARE UPDATING THIS SECTION - PLEASE BEAR WITH US WHILST THIS WORK IS CARRIED OUT
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