# Reusable nappies - We got a bunch second-hand from a friend (for free). They have a thick cotton(?) inner part which snaps (via snap clasp button things - not sure of the right term) - Pros: - For a while they fit better than some of the disposable nappies - but baby outgrew them pretty quickly, all things considered. If your baby grew at a median pace you would probably get more wear out of them. - You ~always have nappies in the house. - You produce less physical rubbish - good for those with small bins or concerns about the environment. - Cons: - We had more wees escape, but fewer poop blowouts. I'm putting this in cons because wees are much more frequent, so that was more disruptive (more onesies, sheets, blankets etc.) - The washing system, while straightforward, never quite clicked for us. I couldn't consistently manage to get nappies into the wash each day, and it always felt weird to run a cycle with only e.g. 2 nappies (this would be less of a concern if you were doing *only* reusables, rather than a mixed strategy). - It produced *a lot* more washing - one load a day, plus - Other notes: - This was all pre-solids, which sound harder, as solid-food-baby-poop is *not* water-soluble (whereas breast milk poop *is*). - I've heard people do a system for solids where they have a *liner* (like a bamboo silk type thing, which comes in a big (and reasonably cheap) roll like foil/clingwrap/baking paper) which holds the poop and gets dealt with (maybe just tossed out wholesale? I can't recall). - Otherwise, having to scrape the poop *then* do the washing sounds like enough work to constitute a hobby - though I think it might not be that *bad* if you have a toilet in your laundry (just scrape into loo -> put in wash). On environmental concerns: - I've heard from someone who seems credible that Moorabbin council reports 12% of their landfill is nappies. That seems crazy! I have to check that for myself. - Quick BOTEC: - Maybe... a quarter to a third of our household rubbish by volume is nappies? (Excluding recycling, but including green waste etc. as we're in a 2-bin council.) - This is with one child - We normally fill, say, half of a standard large rubbish bin per weekly collection (we share it with a second unit) - So to get that *down* to 12%, we'd need - No waste sorting - all directly to landfill (presumably accurate) - Every even household (assuming we're an odd household) to produce no nappies - TFR is about replacement for Australia I think? - So ~every "household" ends up with a kid, but households only spend like ~4 years (out of their, say, age 20-80 years) in the relevant time period: call that ~6% - So 6% of households should be in the nappy phase at any given time. - => it should be way less than 12%, surely!!! - Also - see Hannah Ritchie's work in *Not the End of the World* re: landfills. Overall I think this shouldn't be a big concern per se in Australia. - Especially if nappies are mostly biodegradable, e.g. made of paper, which I think they are? Need to check this.