The 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

BPA

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Robert Anslow Managing Director

If your company is a member of the Baby Products Association and you are not currently receiving members’ e-bulletins with industry updates, but would like to, please email julie@b-p-a. org who will add you to the database.

www.b-p-a.org Government withdraws TAP funding

Earlier this year, the Department for International Trade (DIT) announced its decision to withdraw the Trade Access Programme (TAP) funding to support SMEs to exhibit at international trade shows. This decision has been strongly objected to by the Sponsor’s Alliance, a membership group consisting of almost 70% of UK trade associations which have been delivering the TAP programme for over 10 years and of which the Baby Products Association is a member.

Collaboration

The Association became Trade Challenge Partner for DIT almost a decade ago along with numerous other UK trade associations supporting diverse industries from fashion and textiles, to engineering, brewing and music. These associations have been diligently managing and allocating TAP funding for British companies to exhibit at trade shows around the world helping to create access to exporting; particularly for small companies which are relatively new and inexperienced.

In June this year, the Sponsor’s Alliance lobbied the government with a strongly worded letter to Graham Stuart MP and Minister for Exports for DIT and the majority of members, including the Baby Products Association wrote to their own MPs too expressing concern about the end of TAP funding and the potential consequences for British exporting overall.

Lobbying

Robert Anslow, managing director of the Baby Products Association, stated in this correspondence: “TAP grants have provided numerous companies in the baby products industry (particularly the smaller businesses which have only been trading for a few years) the vital pathway to exporting. Important international trade shows which introduce British businesses to customers from around the world are generally hugely expensive to attend and the government’s decision to withdraw this support will prohibit some SMEs from attending in the future.

The ROI for every TAP supported event attended has been immense for our members. For example, 40 companies attended Kind + Jugend in Germany in 2018 (one of the biggest baby trade shows in the world) receiving combined TAP grants of £60,000. The total orders taken at the show by those participants were valued at almost £3 million. The loss of TAP grants will have a major impact on our members’ ability to attend such events in the future – and consequently a huge loss of export revenue opportunities for our industry.”

Prior to Covid restrictions the Government announced a DIT scheme available from November 2020 to early 2023 called the Internationalisation Fund to assist SMEs ready to start exporting goods or services or expand into new overseas markets (please see separate article below for more information).

Future plans

In a recent press release, DIT has promised a new approach to its support for British businesses when it revamps its export strategy in the near future. This follows calls from the Federation of Small Businesses (FSB) for the UK to match the support of other countries such as that offered to exporters by Canada and Australia.

In response to the criticism from the Sponsor’s Alliance and UK trade associations over the scrapping of TAP, a DIT spokesperson said: “We want trade shows that work better for businesses in every part of the country and support our vision for an export-led recovery from the pandemic. We look forward to setting out this new approach ahead of our revamped export strategy later this year.”

The Baby Products Association will keep its members and the wider industry informed on updates regarding future funding for international trade events.

Internationalisation Fund – what you need to know

The Department for International Trade (DIT) has launched its new Internationalisation Fund supported by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF). Match-funded grants of between £1,000 and £9,000 will be available for future activity, subject to eligibility and availability).

To secure a grant, companies need to fund a proportion of the costs themselves and this varies according to where the business is based – but will be either 40 or 50% of the total cost. The fund is currently available throughout England, except Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly, which have similar schemes. Visit www.great.gov.uk/campaigns/ internationalisation-fund-for-englishbusinesses for more information.

Gain recognition for your products!

Companies exhibiting at Harrogate International Nursery Fair in October this year could gain additional recognition of excellence for their products by entering the Baby Products Association’s Baby and Nursery Trade Awards (BANTAs). Julie Milne of the Association explains: “The BANTAs are highly respected by retailers and buyers attending the show as the awards are judged by industry experts taking into consideration aspects such as safety, practicality, value for money, desirability and market need. This gives them a heads up at the show about which products are considered to be great retail choices.

For more information and to download an entry form, visit the website at www.b-p-a.org

For more information about joining the Baby Products Association and receiving information and support for your business, visit www.b-p-a.org – or contact Julie Milne at julie@b-p-a.org