Back in ‘the day‘ disposable nappies were designed to be used occasionally alongside real ones for situations where it was difficult to use them. Over the years the convenience of the dispsables have made them the nappy of choice for most parents. Now, they account for upwards of 4% of waste that is landfilled or incinerated. That‘s over 1.5 million tonnes a year across England - almost a tonne per child altogether!

But the real nappy is back. Made of washable materials ranging from cotton to bamboo, they are an easy to use, practical alternative to disposables; they are cheaper and reduce rubbish going to landfill. What‘s more some of my friends who use them say there‘s not a safety pin in sight with real nappies these days and they are really simple to use.

For a few years now, the council have been running a real nappy project called Ready Wraps (www.reading2020.org.uk/readywraps) through which parents can get £30 cash back on real nappies and find information on the subject. This means you can kit out your baby in real nappies for as little as £50. Even when you add in the cost of washing real nappies at home the total cost only goes up to £210. The same amount of money would only buy around 30 weeks‘ worth of disposables. Considering children are in nappies for around 130 weeks you can make a good saving - even without re-using your real nappies on another child!

While researching for this article I also came across a 2006 council press release for the Lodge Nursery at Southcote Children‘s Centre which was using real nappies for children there. Parents are given a freshly-laundered real nappy to take home when they pick up their child, which the child can wear when she or he arrives at the nursery next day. The scheme helps introduce more parents to the benefits of real nappies and environmentally friendly disposables, whilst showing how simple changing the nappies can be. Are there any other Nurseries out there doing this?

What prompted me to write this column though was learning that some maternity wards in Scotland use real nappies - such as at the Ayrshire Arran Hospital. A quick chat to the Royal Berks revealed that they use disposable nappies on the wards and they pay to throw away their waste. So the hospital may be able to save money by using real nappies. More importantly it could help show mums and dads how easy to use real nappies are and reduce the 3 billion nappies that end up being landfilled or incinerated in the UK each year.