I found this website today and if it takes off it could be the start of something really great for parents.
At the moment we are all looking for recycled stuff on eBay and Freecycle but this site is trying to combine everything in one place along with help and advice.
It looks to be run by passionate people. Lets hope it takes off.
I’ve been surfing about recently due to an inability to move around much and come across some people who have the same idea as our family. Here are some links to useful sites.
The Recycle This Guide to recycling baby stuff
The ethical superstore for all your shopping needs!
Another green mom Living Slowly
I have bought my first pack of real nappies in an online auction. I actually punched the air and shouted yes when I finally managed it. I am now the proud owner of a pack of five Tots Bots size one nappies and a wrap. It has taken several weeks to get my hands on them and the kind of obsessive behaviour found in OCD clinics everywhere. Of course it’s only five nappies and according to most websites you need at least 12 to get through a day. That’s a LOT of poo and wee. Can a baby really get through 12 nappies in a day? Surely that’s an unusual day? I guess I’ll have to wait and see for myself. My mum is offering to buy me a starter pack of six Motherease nappies and frankly, after the couple of weeks I’ve had trying to buy the Tots Bots, I’m inclined to let her. Is that wrong?
It also got me thinking, there’s no way I can get all those nappies dry if I have to wash 12 a day. My mate says I’m nuts if I don’t get a tumble dryer. I could try and persuade my other half to buy one but I’d rather have a go at stopping the tide. He’s already complaining about the cost of all the stuff we are getting and most of it is second hand. On top of that moneysavingexpert Martin Lewis is saying electricity is going to jump in price massively this summer. I’m looking at fixing our electricity tariff on the back of this So getting an electricity guzzling tumble dryer costing several hundred pounds and more to run is slim. My mate is adamant I have to have one because I’ll never be able to get everything dry and I’ll have piles of damp laundry everywhere. I went home and looked around and lo, there in the utility room was a pile of damp laundry. So nothing is actually going to change once the baby arrives…. Refreshing to know!
I have a vision of demented women sat at their computers feverishly, no desperately, watching hundreds of auctions for nappies as they tick down to their end time. Hitting buttons with rigid fingers like maniacs, upping their bids determined to win reusable nappies. I’ve been sat doing exactly that for over a week and i still haven’t managed to buy one, let alone a pack of nappies. I’ve been outbid at every turn, one auction was ended by the seller and I clearly need to up my budget. The trouble is, if I up my budget, I’m practically paying new prices for the nappies and I don’t want to do that. Does that make me cheap? I don’t know, but I figure if there has been poo in a nappy, you shouldn’t have to pay full price for it, on an auction site or anywhere else. Capitalism is a wonderful thing and I guess the market will sustain people paying full price for second hand nappies, especially the ones from women who have bought them, used one or two and baulked at the thought of washing nappies for the next two years and stuck them on eBay. So do I bite the bullet and pay more or continue my own slightly insane quest to buy cheaply. It’s gotten so bad I was on the radio at Mercia the other day and had to string a bunch of songs together when I shouldn’t have so I could try and win some nappies. I didn’t win and I got a telling off….. hmmm!
Husband has come up with a few suggestions for being the winning bidder. This week I shall mostly be trying to buy from auctions that end in the middle of the night or the early hours of the morning. Also, I shall be putting more money down as my bid and trying to find all the spelling mistakes. I SHALL buy cheap, second hand nappies. I’ll let you know how it goes.
You have to be really committed to this recycling lark to sit for hours online trying to buy reusable nappies on auction sites. No wonder people just buy new ones from the shops, the hassle factor is so much less! For the last week I’ve been sat at work trying to buy nappies in auctions. I see some I think I want and I bid but I’m constantly getting outbid, to the point where it would actually cost less to go and buy some new ones in a shop! There are some serious nappy addicts out there.
It is quite funny that half the people selling nappies have had them bought for them and never used them. Either that or they have been used once or twice and then the mum has given up and put them on one side out of the way before diving headlong into the pile of eco-disposables. Real nappies aren’t for everyone and I’m getting to reap the rewards. I guess, technically, it’s possible for the same pack of real nappies to go through several homes without actually being used. Each middle class lady thinking it’s a brilliant idea to use them and then when the baby gets home and they have to change the first dirty hospital nappy thinking… hmm, now where did I put those disposables. It could be that I think that way. I’m not planning on putting pressure on myself so I’m going to have a ready supply of disposables at hand as well as my real nappies. That’s if I ever get my hands on any.
this is what I'm trying to buy - Tots Bots bamboozles - so near and yet so far.
Reusable nappies are supposed to be the best thing for the environment so how come my local council is soooo not behind them. You would think with the landfill taxes they will be forced to pay they would be jumping on the reusable bandwagon as fast as they could, but no! Their website starts off well – telling us that three billion nappies are thrown away each year in the UK, that’s about 8 million nappies a day! But it goes downhill from here. Other councils seem to do much more than Leicester City Council. If you start looking for information about reusable nappies online it turns out lots of councils offer vouchers to help you buy them new. Not my council. Leicestershire County Council offers you £30 to buy your first real nappies. The boundary is about a mile and a half away from my house and if I could move my bricks and mortar right now I would. My council offers you the chance to try before you buy. That’s it…a bucket of nappies, if they are available, that you can try for two weeks. No cash help, no enthusiasm, no wonder people just carry on using disposables.
Disposable nappies can take up to 500 years to fully decompose in a landfill site. Some bits of the nappy may never fully decompose. That’s horrific isn’t it? In a couple of hundred years the television equivalent of Tony Robinson and Time Team could be digging up my baby’s poo and getting excited about it in an archaeological fashion.
I’m not going to try and be a martyr and pledge never to use disposables but there has to be a compromise here. I’m going to try and get hold of some reusable nappies. Now I’m not sure whether I should try and get used ones or buy new ones. The purest way forward is to get used ones but that’s quite an icky thought, even with the power of detergent and washing machines. Then again we must suffer for our art! I’ve had a quick look on eBay and there seem to be a lot of nappies for sale. I’ll have to get my auction fingers out and try and make some purchases.
The picture above is from this website.
