Real Nappy Week 2015, a seven-day campaign held to promote the use of reusable cloth nappies across the UK, will begin on Monday (20 April).

The week is organised by Go Real, a Cornish-based social enterprise aiming to provide information about the use of so-called ‘real nappies’.

It is supported by Recycle for Wales and will see local authorities in Wales and elsewhere in the UK joining with washable ‘real nappy’ retailers to promote their benefits.

According to Go Real, three billion nappies are used by the estimated 813,000 babies born every year, equating to over 355,000 tonnes of waste and an annual disposal cost to local authorities and tax payers of £32 million.

Switching from single-use nappies to cloth ones, it says, would lead to a 40 per cent carbon saving.

Finally, on a personal level, Go Real estimates that switching to reusable nappies could save parents £450 - £1,100 per child.

Raising awareness

Throughout the week, events will be held across the UK including ‘Nappy Libraries’ (where parents can trial real nappies without investing any money upfront) and ‘Nappy Natters’ (where parents can ask questions/find out more information about using cloth nappies). Further to this, Go Real will be sending out daily information bulletins on sustainable nappy habits and special offers on nappy-related items, to those who have signed up to receive newsletters.

To launch the week, the Real Nappy Project – run by environmental consultant Changeworks – will be taking part in the Great Cloth Diaper Challenge. On Saturday morning (18 April), parents will attempt to break the Guinness World Record for the most reusable cloth nappies changed simultaneously. The project set the world record last year, when 8,459 babies had their nappies changed simultaneously across 18 countries worldwide. The event is taking part at Café Camino in Edinburgh.

Go Real will then be launching a petition during the week to persuade the Department of Health to allow local authorities to include information about reusable nappies within the Maternity Exemption Certificate.

The Make Real Nappies Normal campaign has also been launched on crowd-sourcing platform GoFundMe to raise funds for a nappy information service to be distributed to parents and nappy libraries across the UK.

Details of the events being held can be found on the Go Real website.

Savings to be made on reusable nappies

Commenting on the benefits of reusable cloth nappies, Kate Lee, a mother from Ceredigion said: “I have saved £632 over the 43 months in total that we needed nappies for the two children.

“This doesn’t take into consideration that I have also sold the nappies again, now we don’t need them anymore, and got back about a third of the cost of them – so that’s another £130 saving.”

Another mother, Grace Lee from Powys (whose 17-month-old child wears reusable nappies, pictured above), added: “I like not having a massive bag of stinking nappies waiting around for two weeks destined for landfill.

“I was once told that if Shakespeare would have been in disposables, his nappies would still exist today.

“I hate the legacy of filth and decay that we are leaving for our children and I hate the thought of … the risk of contamination [it] causes.”

Find out more about Real Nappy Week 2015 or the problem of disposing of single-use nappies.