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We have long been warned of the environmental impact of disposable nappies - indeed the statistics are quite frightening: 8 million nappies enter landfill in the UK every day, they take up to 500 years to break down, and the quantity of raw materials and energy required to make them are staggering. However, government research in 2008 found that the overall environmental impact of manufacturing and washing reusable cloth nappies may actually be worse than for disposable nappies.
One of the concerns of disposable nappies in landfill is for the amount of methane that they release as a result of the excrement inside. This is a moot point as the same quantity of methane will still be released from reusable nappies, just not from a single landfill site.
There is far less energy used in the production of reusable cloth nappies when compared to the much more artificial disposable nappies, but this can easily be outweighed by the additional energy required to launder cloth nappies over their useful life cycle. Indeed, the environmental impact of using reusable cloth nappies can be twice as damaging as disposables if certain measures aren't taken. If you want to be a true eco-warrior then use reusable cloth nappies, but also make sure that you:-
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Often when we take the children out in the fresh air to teach them about the outside world, we head for the local park or nature reserve. Our towns and cities are often overlooked as places to take children when in fact there is a wealth of opportunity for them to learn in built up areas.
So, how does an excursion around the town provide opportunities for learning? Excursions in and around towns can help in the following ways:
Things to look out for:
How can you enhance the experience? Here are a few ideas:
Have fun and enjoy your environment!
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In recent years it has become even more popular to provide cloth nappies for babies and toddlers rather than disposables. We hear about mountains of undecomposed nappy material littering the land fill sites and causing ecological dangers. But, why should it matter what we wrap around our babies? After all, it's only for a few years before they're potty-trained and surely there are more important ecological matters that deserve more attention?
Before you make a decision about cloth or disposable nappies, here are a few facts that are worth looking at.
Disadvantages of Disposables
Advantages of cloth nappies
It's pretty convincing and you'll be doing another little bit for the environment that those babies running and crawling around in those cloth nappies will actually inherit one day!
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So, Christmas is over - how much packaging have you had to dispose of? Is it just our imagination, or do children's toys seem to come with kilo's of superfluous packaging? In Germany shoppers are entitled to unpackage goods at the checkout and leave the mess for retailers to dispose of. That has encouraged manufacturers of all goods to reduce the amount of packaging they use - supermarkets and retailer's simply won't stock overpackaged goods. We think that's a great idea!
Amazon.com, in the USA, offer over 350 products in 'frustration-free packaging'. These are the same regular products available as normal, but in an easy-to-open box that is easily recycled and doesn't recquire an additional package to be mailed out in. They work with manufacturers directly so that these goods are never over-packaged off the production line. There are none of those annoying clips, wires, screws and other protective gizmo's that make it nigh on impossible to extract your children's new toys from their packaging. It's better for the consumer, better for the environment, and it has to be cheaper for the manufacturer. What a great idea! We think Amazon should extend this to all their markets!
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Growing up involves experiencing so many new things. As an adult, you can immediatly recognise the outdoor landscape, being able to identify lorries, tractors, pylons, streetlights, churches, factories, and so on. To your babies, these are all new, and they only begin to make sense of the landscape over time. Spend time outside with your children, go for walks and point out interesting features and objects; talk to them, and in time they will begin to learn about their environment. The great outdoors must be pretty baffling to a baby, but in no time at all, they will come to understand it and foster an appreciation for the finer things in life!
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