Nappy Train_ about us

Won't the bin be all smelly?

Nappies soaked in water begin to smell as the bacteria, encouraged by the water, go to work! In this case however, nappies are put into the bin and are not soaked and the smell is much less. Also, the bin has a lid to help keep the smell in. We cannot say that on the hottest day of the year, the nappy bin will never smell. In such cases, the bin could be put somewhere discrete and shady outside! What we can say is that we have a bin in our bathroom and we have not experienced odour problems.

Wasn't there a report from the Environment Agency saying there was no difference between using disposables and washables?

There was. My background is environmental science, I have three degrees in the area including a PhD and have worked in consultancy for nine years and teach science. With that in mind I would simply say that I have not come across such a profoundly 'unsatisfactory' piece of research in a long while. I have friends who work for the EA and say that the report is controversial and debatable. For example, whilst the sample size for those using disposables is over a thousand, fewer than forty real nappy users were conacted. Moreover, only the terry nappy users were used for the purposes of comparison. Curious assumptions were also made, such as a new set of nappies would be purchased for each child, or that nappies would be washed at 90 degrees and tumble dried. What is most deplorable is that this ill-informed report has set the agenda in terms of Government policy. DGW.

THE NAPPYTRAIN

frequent questions