Support for Real Nappy Week, 29th March to 4th April 2004, is still rising with 356 local authorities and 108 MPs signed up to date. Details of supporters and events are being posted on the website as they come in.

There is cross party support for the Week which is coordinated by Women’s Environmental Network (WEN) with £75,000 government backing via the Waste and Resources Action Programme’s (WRAP) waste minimisation programme.

WEN will publish 'Nappies and the NHS - waste prevention and fair choice for parents’, on 29th March, focusing attention on the role of the NHS in this government backed waste prevention initiative. Ann Link, Coordinator of WEN said, “A few pages in Department of Health baby care manuals is not enough to balance the insidious promotion of disposable nappies in the NHS.” The report lays out what is needed for the NHS to promote genuine fair choice for parents and to support Defra’s strategy for waste reduction.

Now in its eighth year, Real Nappy Week has extended throughout the British Isles. Hundreds of events have been organised across 45 counties in England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales, and The Isle of Man to increase awareness of the benefits of real nappies.

The week sees the launch of major cash incentive and loan schemes for cloth nappy users in East Renfrewshire, East Sussex, Harrow, Hertfordshire, Hounslow and Leicestershire as well as Ceredigion’s new Real Nappy Project and the Southampton Real Nappy Network.

Mountains of nappy waste will appear in prominent locations in London, Wokingham, Gloucester and Belfast to show just how much waste is created when a baby uses disposable nappies. Roadshows will tour ten counties, Gallons of coffee will be consumed at ‘Nappuchinos’ and ‘clothie’ coffee mornings in 26 different locations. Showing off the real choice that cloth nappies offer to parents, displays will be mounted in 45 different locations: Aldershot, Belfast, Bishop’s Stortford, Bournemouth, Bridgewater, Burgess Hill, Carmarthen, Carlow, Cheltenham, Chesterfield, Chertsey, Chichester, Chorley, Darley Dale, the Eden Project, Exeter, Farnborough, Faversham, Haywards Heath, Hemel Hempstead, Hertford, Hythe, Kensington, Leamington Spa, Letchworth, Liskeard, Neath, Newport, Rotherham, St Albans, Stevenage, Stockport, Stockton on Tees, Swansea, Taunton, Telford, Tetbury, Tonbridge, Watford, Welwyn Garden City, West Wickham, Wimbledon, Wokingham, Worcester, Wrexham.

A list of supporting MPs accompanies this release. For full details of the Week’s supporters, events and activities visit WEN’s website

UK Nappy Line - 01983 401959 gives callers details of their local cloth nappy contacts whether they want to buy them to wash at home or use a laundry service.

ENDS

For media information contact Elizabeth Hartigan or Liz Sutton, Women’s Environmental Network, Tel: 020 7481 9004 Email: bibahartigan@aol.com

NOTES TO EDITORS
Women’s Environmental Network is a registered charity which campaigns on issues which link women, health and the environment. Always inclined to break new ground, WEN initiated the Waste Minimisation Act which was passed in 1998.

Real Nappy Week 29th March to 4th April 2004 is the annual focus of the real nappy campaign. In addition to the national campaign, local activities are organised all over the UK to mark the Week and raise awareness of the benefits of cloth nappies both to consumers and the environment.

Waste
The real nappy campaign and home composting have been chosen to lead the government’s new waste reduction strategy with a target to convert an additional 155,000 households to real nappy use by April 2006. For further information visit www.wrap.org.uk

Cost
Home laundered nappies could save parents £500 on the cost of keeping a baby in nappies. You can kit out your baby in real nappies on the high street for under £70. The same amount of money will only buy ten to twelve weeks of disposables. Even taking into account the total cost of laundering nappies at home (about £50 a year) the savings are still considerable.

Use
Women’s Environmental Network estimates that about 15% of parents now use real nappies.

Public Contact Details:
UK Nappy Line - 01983 401959 gives callers details of their local cloth nappy contacts whether they want to buy them to wash at home or use a laundry service. With over 1,200 retail outlets in the UK and more than 75 local nappy sellers along with numerous laundry services and mail order companies, it has never been easier to find and use cloth nappies.
www.wen.org.uk for online cloth nappy information and supplier contacts.
More information on Real Nappy Week is available on www.wen.org.uk/rnw

MPs SUPPORTING REAL NAPPY WEEK 2004
Click for full list of supporters