Onelife Cloth Nappies

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Details of how to use our washable nappy is available on our Onelife Nappy User Guide section. If you need help and can't find the answer to your query please contact the Onelife UK customer help line on 0845 601 7308.

Some of our customer faq's relating to cloth nappies and the environment:

Why should I use real nappies instead of disposable nappies?
How environmentally friendly are real nappies?
Will using cloth nappies have a real impact on environmental waste?
What about biodegradable disposables? They're OK aren't they?
What about the environmental impact of washing the nappies?

Q. Why should I use real nappies instead of disposable nappies?
There are lots of reasons why more and more parents are choosing reusable nappies for their babies. Many are concerned about the impact of throwing away disposable nappies as well as the energy and resources used in their manufacture. Every baby needs about 4,500 - 5,000 nappy changes between birth and potty training which makes for an awful lot of raw materials being used to create a product that after a few hours use becomes non-biodegradable waste. The scientific estimates are that disposable nappies could take anything up to 500 years to decompose and many parents simply don't want to leave this as a legacy for their children and grandchildren. Of course an added bonus of choosing reusable nappies is that you could also save over £1000 per baby!

Q. How environmentally friendly are real nappies?
When choosing reusable nappies for your baby you have the option of up to 5000 single use products or 20 reusable ones. Whilst most people are aware of the waste created by disposable nappies, not everyone has thought about the impact of the huge amount of raw resources that go into creating 5000 disposables nappies, the energy used in their manufacture as well as the transportation and (plastic) packaging of the finished product. How many nappy miles has each disposable travelled before it reaches a supermarket near you? Or how many times as the average parent rushed out in the car to buy emergency supplies of disposables? It all adds up. Onelife nappies have a one-off impact in terms of the materials and energy used in their manufacture and transportation: and there are only 20 of them for 2 ½ years average use. Yes, there is an impact involved in washing nappies two or three times a week, but this can be minimised and the overall impact of reusable nappies is still far lower than any disposable alternative. See What about the environmental impact of washing the nappies?

Q. Will using cloth nappies have a real impact on environmental waste?
Local and county councils are becoming increasingly concerned about the volume of domestic waste and many now run schemes such as kerbside recycling collections or community composting in an attempt to reduce the ever increasing mountain of waste our society produces. Some now offer incentives for their residents to encourage them to use cloth nappies for this reason. Disposable nappies make up about 4% of UK domestic landfill waste and there are more than 8 million thrown away every single day in the UK alone. It is easy to see, therefore, how choosing the Onelife Altogether make a real difference to the waste in your bin. Using the Onelife paper liner also ensures that any solid waste from your baby goes into the sewage system where it can be correctly and hygienically processed. Placing human waste in the dustbin in a disposable nappy is an additional problem caused by the use of disposable nappies.

Q. What about biodegradable disposables? They're OK aren't they?
Parents often ask us about biodegradable disposables and there is an increasing amount of clever marketing of disposable nappy products that includes pictures of trees or phrases like "cotton feel" and "natural fit"! There are a small number of products on the market from specialist outlets which claim a degree of biodegradability but when you look carefully you have to place the nappy in a wormery to achieve this - a process known as vermicomposting. Given that an average baby might use up to 40 nappies a week, it seems highly unlikely that most parents will have the facilities or inclination to successfully compost these products if in full time use. Most of these nappies must surely end up in plastic bags in landfill sites - which is hardly the ideal place for the nappy to break down. It would be a shame for parents to believe they were making a genuine contribution to reducing waste to then throw them away with their regular rubbish. Disposables marketed in this way tend to attract a premium price and of course still use a significant quantity of raw materials in their manufacture. Onelife cotton nappies can be used again and again and again creating no waste - biodegradable or otherwise.

Q. What about the environmental impact of washing the nappies?
Like many things in life, it's not what you do, it's how you do it! To reduce the environmental impact of your baby's nappy years even further, you can wash as low as 40 degrees when using Onelife Pure due to its gentle antibactieral action. There is no need to wash on a "hot" wash and we recommend 60 degrees as a maximum. Line drying your nappies is an ecological alternative to a tumble drier and you can also add your nappies to other washing to make up a load when using Onelife Pure. There really is no comparison, though between 20 cotton washable nappies and the 4,500 - 5000 disposables needed by one baby! Find out more about the Onelife philosophy and environmentally friendly nappies.

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