October 2009 Archives

On paper, the Tots Bots Easyfit is nearly the perfect nappy. It's a generous size, cheerful colour, strong but easy to use velcro close, and highly absorbent bamboo core (it also comes in microfibre).
It's only drawback is taking it apart for washing and reassembling. It has a bamboo inner that slots into a 'tongue' that folds into the pocket (yes, hard to imagine) but it's quite difficult to get the inner back into the sleeve.

Rumparooz have a couple of features that are slightly better than the 'average' pocket nappy, specifically the 'gusset' in the main body of the nappy to aid containment, like a disposable nappy, and the '6 hour soaker' insert, which is quite clever.
However, their main drawback is they are too small. Our test subject is only 5 months old, albeit on the 97th percentile for weight (he was 8.7kg at 4 months!) but he has outgrown the Rumparooz. I don't see how you could make it last into toddlerhood.
Not recommended.

We have been composting pee-only nappies, as I read an article in Gardening Australia magazine about a reader who had been using them as a mulch layer. I initially tried this, but the wood pulp core, and water-saving chemical, disintegrated too quickly.
How?
When we use disposables, any wee-only ones are kept in a separate nappy bucket. When it's time to compost, I make a cut with scissors at the top of the nappy near the leg edge, then tear down the leg seam. This allows the pulp core to fall out, into the compost. The plastic wrapping is then put into the regular rubbish.
This is a controversial thing to do for 2 reasons:

• human waste treatment
• water-saving chemicals

It is not recommended to use human, or pet, waste in compost. Why do we do it? Because the volume of waste is relatively small, and the composting process itself should break down the urine. And like greywater, you can use the resultant compost in such a way as to avoid contact with the edible parts of plants. It is recommended not to use greywater on leafy veg, for example, so I'd use this compost as a soil conditioner to plant tomatoes in - which don't come in to contact with the fruit.

What about the nasty toxins in water-saving chemicals? Well these are effectively the same chemicals used in water-saving crystals anyway, so I figure, 'what's the difference?'. I'd like to hear from anyone with a different view.

So far, all the nappies are still composting, so I'll let you know when we start using it.

I'm very happy with this approach as it helps us deal with one of the two significant issues with disposing of nappies - volume of waste in landfill. The result of removing the pulp core is that more than 50% of the bulk is removed.

I have read that for "eco" disposables, you can compost the entire nappy as some of the other construction materials are biodegradable - but we have not yet tried this. If you do this, you need to remove the non biodegradable (plastic) parts of the nappy from your compost. Or leave them there I suppose ... they won't hurt.

One thing to note is that all the urine makes the compost acidic - you may get 'vinegar flies', so add basic garden lime to counteract the acidity.

Here are a few websites on different approaches and opinions on composting nappies.

Nature's Child - disposable nappies, use and disposal
Sydney Morning Herald - Child's play: turning nappies into compost
EnviroComp Ltd - NZ joint venture between Huggies and EnviroComp to commercially compost nappies

This does not resolve the other significant waste problem of disposables - human waste in landfill. All the pooey nappies are still going to landfill ....