A Nappy (Environmental Standards) Bill was launched last week by David Linden MP at the Round Chapel in Hackney, London, promoting education, transparency and reusable nappy incentives.
The Nappy Bill will establish an industry and government-led campaign to promote reusable nappies that meet the environmental standards, legislating to ensure that manufacturers cannot make false eco-friendly claims.
This has come about because biodegradable disposable nappies use approximately the same amount of finite raw materials and energy to produce as their non-biodegradable counterparts.
The Bill advocates that parents should be provided with information on the damaging environmental effects of disposable nappies so that they can make informed decisions, as well as being made aware of the financial advantages of reusable nappies for families and local authorities.
The Bill will also incentivise local authorities across the country to roll out reusable nappy voucher schemes, such as the one currently used by the Real Nappies for London scheme, in order to reduce disposable nappy waste and the circulation in the waste stream of single-use plastics.
The Bill is supported by The Nappy Alliance who believe that parents should be given more information about reusable nappies, empowering them to make an informed choice about the products that they choose to use.
Guy Schanschieff, chair of The Nappy Alliance and founder of Bambino Mio, commented: “Reusable nappies have increased in popularity in recent years but there is much more that can be done to support and entice new parents, by giving them more product information and ensuring that they are not be mislead by so-called ’eco’ disposable nappies which are not environmentally friendly.”
He continued; “By opting to use reusable nappies, parents in the UK alone could help stop eight million disposable nappies being thrown into landfill every day.”
The launch of the Bill coincided with a Hackney Real Nappy networking event attended by councillors, MPs, The Nappy Alliance, reusable nappy industry leaders and parents.
