Waste & Resources Action Programme Response

In response to the recent article in the Daily Mail (Tuesday 3rd July 2007), WRAP (Waste & Resources Action Programme) would make the following comments:

The Life Cycle Analysis report carried out by the Environment Agency was done in 2005 and looked at the environmental impact of different nappy systems. The report also sought to identify where further opportunities existed in order to minimise environmental impact.

The Environment Agency is currently undertaking further work to assess this issue.

The Real Nappy Campaign helps modern parents who are environmentally conscious to make an informed choice about their use of nappies.

Help and advice for parents looking to use or are currently using real nappies, in addition to campaign partners can be found at the campaign website.

There are Top 10 easy ways in which parents can further minimise their impact on the environment when using real nappies:

One of the key aims of The Real Nappy Campaign was to raise awareness amongst parents of the viability of using real nappies – before handing over to partners, such as local councils to continue to promote.

As a result of WRAP’s support for 28 local real nappy schemes (2004-2006), 23,000 tonnes of disposable nappies were successfully diverted away from landfill in England. The cost per tonne of diverting these nappies was around £53.40. This is less than the average cost of landfill disposal.

Further diversion which WRAP could not quantify at reasonable cost will have happened as a result of the decisions by individual parents who were not covered by one of the WRAP schemes but who nevertheless have decided to choose to use real nappies..

The total budget for the Real Nappy campaign over a two year period was £2.3 million.

There is no new funding identified for the Real Nappy Campaign by WRAP. However, WRAP is currently working with a series of partners to maintain the momentum and take the campaign forward. Some modest transitional funding may be found to enable that to happen.

ENDS

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