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Real Nappy Week launches with Lucy Owen

This year’s Real Nappy Week (21-27 April) has been launched by Welsh newsreader and new mum Lucy Owen. As part of the week, Waste Awareness Wales and Sustainable Wales are encouraging new parents such as Lucy to consider using real nappies on their children – and has also launched a search to find babies from across Wales to star in a real nappy calendar.

For every potty trained child in Wales, around 5,000 disposable nappies will have been sent to landfill, so Waste Awareness Wales and sustainable Wales are asking parents to consider using reusable nappies to help save the environment – and their wallets.

Gwenan Davies, development officer from Waste Awareness Wales said:

"Real nappies have changed a lot since many people’s last experiences of them – these days there’s not a safety pin in sight. Today they come in bright patterns, are ‘nappy shaped’, fasten with fabric fasteners or poppers and they’re so easy to wash – there’s no need to soak or boil wash, making them incredibly easy to use. Best of all, they’re not just good for the environment - with savings of up to £500 for the first child you use them on, they are kind to your finances too."

Lucy Owen launched the week with a ‘real nappy show’ held in Cardiff, where passers-by had the chance to find out more about real nappies and see them being modelled by babies. Lucy said:

"I am delighted to be involved with this year’s Real Nappy Week – as a new mum, using real nappies is definitely something I will be considering now and will be giving them a try on Gabriel. I never realised how many nappies a baby gets through – when you add up all that waste going to landfill you realise what a big difference using real nappies could make."

Waste Awareness Wales will be producing a calendar of babies in real nappies to help spread the message and are launching a search for babies to star in the calendar. If you think your baby could be the face of real nappies then send a recent photo of your baby wearing a real nappy with name and contact details to Waste Awareness Wales at Golley Slater, Wharton Street, Wharton Place, Cardiff, CF10 1GS.

Real Facts on Real Nappies

• In Wales 200 million disposable nappies are thrown away each year – 400 nappies every minute
• A potty trained baby will have got through 4,000-6,000 nappies
• Using real nappies can be up to half the cost of disposables – and they can be reused with subsequent children to save even more
• Families with one baby could cut their waste in half by choosing to use real nappies
• One baby’s disposable nappies from its nappy years will fill around 156 black rubbish bags