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Nappy Alliance
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Nappy Alliance advocates positive change for parents by making reusable nappies more accessible. On 30th August, the Daily Mail published an article speculating on rumours that the UK government are planning to introduce a tax on disposable nappies to encourage parents to switch to “greener alternatives” to help tackle the landfill crisis. Downing Street were quick to dismiss the rumours, with denial statements published the following day. The focus of the news in the national media then developed from the nappy tax discussion to campaigners urging the government to introduce reusable nappy incentive schemes across the UK. The issue of single-use plastic waste is a hot topic in government, with taxes being introduced for other single-use plastic products such as disposable plates and cutlery. Disposable nappies are currently in the top 25 products found in the ocean. A significant eight million nappies are used every day in the UK and the majority are thrown into landfill, with plastics such as Polypropylene and Polyethene making-up 30% of their composition, which takes up to 500 years to degrade. The Nappy Alliance (a group of reusable nappy companies who have been working with the government and advocating for change within the sector) are firmly against the Nappy Tax and strongly believe that this would hit
I strongly believe that we should take a dual approach to tackling this issue – we need to make reusables accessible to all new parents across the country and we need to make the companies producing disposables take responsibility for their environmental impact.” Guy Schanschieff
families struggling with financial difficulties the hardest. Guy Schanschieff, Founder & Managing Director of reusable nappy brand Bambino Mio, and Chair of the Nappy Alliance has been working with the government for over a decade to highlight the importance of the issue around disposable nappies and feels that whilst it’s good that progress is being made, and that the government are focusing on the single-use nappy issue, that introducing a tax is completely the wrong way to do it. Guy Schanschieff, Chair of the Nappy Alliance, says: “Whilst I emphatically commend the Government’s efforts to tackle the crisis we face with single-use plastic nappies, introducing a tax on them will only achieve one thing – punishing parents. “Whilst it’s true that we need to do everything we can to change habits and remove single-use plastic from our day-to-day, this responsibility shouldn’t rest only on consumers. The companies that make disposables need to be held accountable for what they are producing and making profit.” Campaigners are also advocating for reusable alternatives to become more accessible to parents with the help of financial incentives through local council initiatives. There is already a selection of local councils in London who operate reusable nappy schemes to encourage parents to choose to reuse, offering them
vouchers to put towards purchasing reusable nappies. These initiatives are in the interest of local authorities, as UK families send 355,000 tonnes of single use nappies to landfill and insinuation each year, costing Local Authorities (and tax payers) a whopping £32 million a year. If 10% more parents use reusable nappies this would save local councils £10 million. Schanschieff continues: “I strongly believe that we should take a dual approach to tackling this issue – we need to make reusables accessible to all new parents across the country and we need to make the companies producing disposables take responsibility for their environmental impact. We are already facing a problem of child poverty in the UK, and making parents bear the brunt of disposable nappies is unfair and unjust. We need industry commitment alongside governmental collaboration to ensure that reusable nappies become the first point of call for any new parent. Only then will we have a chance at stemming the flow of single-use nappies.” While parents, government officials and campaigners are critical of the idea of a nappy tax, all agree to the fact that something needs to be done to tackle the disposable nappy waste issue. It’s clear that accessibility is the key to tackling this issue in order to succeed. It’s important that parents have the option to choose to reuse and have the support in place to help them on their journey to become more sustainable.
www.nappyalliance.co.uk
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