The Waste and Resources Action Programme – funded by the Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs – has been heavily involved in the promotion of nappies over the last few years, including the annual Real Nappy Week event.
” We are pleased to see that that no further funding for real nappies will come from central government “
– Tracy Stewart, AHPMA
This week WRAP revealed that following a reshuffle in the organisation's priorities, its support for the Real Nappies campaign work is to end, although it will still be supporting next year’s campaign. The nappies work has been pushed aside in favour of “bigger wins” such as organics and construction wins.
The disposable nappy lobby has long protested that real nappies are no more environmentally sound than their disposable cousins. The group argues that disposable nappies make up just 2.4% of household waste and only 0.1% of landfilled waste.
Tracy Stewart, director general of the Absorbent Hygiene Products Manufacturers Association – representatives of the disposable nappy lobby, said: “We are pleased to see that that no further funding for WRAP's real nappies will come from central government and that WRAP will now be moving on to bigger wins in terms of tonnage.”
Ms Stewart added that WRAP had been exemplary in its coverage of real nappies during its work. “Whilst we would rather no one ran a campaign promoting the use of real nappies, WRAP have been very well balanced in their coverage,” she said.
But Ms Stewart added her concerns that central government should also now look to bigger things, rather than simply handing funding over to another organisation to work against disposable nappies.
The UK disposable nappy industry met in the House of Commons last week in an event hosted by Bill Wiggin who is both shadow secretary of state for Wales and a shadow environment minister.
At the event Mr Wiggin explained that as a parent he fully appreciated the advantage of disposable nappies. He said: “The washable nappy is out of date and while it may reduce landfill, other environmental impacts are worse than disposables. The Governments huge expenditure has not delivered the desired results.
“Environmental policy needs to go with the grain of human behaviour and we need to recognise that progress has been made on reducing the environmental impact of disposable nappies,” he added.
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