Photocall: 11am, Friday 29 June 2007: Real Nappies for London incentive scheme goes live to the public at The Band Room Coram's Fields, Guilford Street, London WC1N 1DN. Babies in a soft play area decorated with cloth nappies will get to grips with their choices.

Babies will be the special guests at the launch of Real Nappies for London (RNfL), a capital-wide incentive scheme to help new parents interested in using cloth nappies. A soft play area decorated with soft, colourful modern fitted cloth nappies in a range of funky designs will give the intended users a chance to really get to grips with the choices available to them and their parents.

TV presenter and eco-expert Penney Poyzer, host of BBC2's 'No Waste Like Home' series, will introduce the scheme, which goes live after three years' research and development by Women's Environmental Network and London boroughs led by Bexley Council.

The scheme offers new or expectant parents in participating boroughs vouchers towards the cost of buying cloth nappies or laundry services, plus an information pack and events.²

Independent research showed parents who hadn't used cloth nappies had outdated notions that they were time consuming and difficult but parents who tried them when the scheme was piloted found them easier than expected; 83% said they'd continue to use them.⁵

RNfL will help reduce poverty - parents can save £500 or more against using disposables - and reduce the 90,000 tonnes of disposable nappy waste that goes to landfill from London each year. It is also expected to have wider community benefits, including reducing sewage blockages and nappy litter on housing estates, providing a focus, through real nappy education, for community engagement and health education, and providing small business opportunities.

Thirteen boroughs are participating already: Bexley, Camden, Enfield, Hackney, Hammersmith & Fulham, Haringey, Hounslow, Islington, Kensington & Chelsea, Lewisham, Newham, Redbridge and Tower Hamlets. Others are expected to join.

Parents and parents-to-be can access the scheme by calling 020 7324 4709 or logging on to www.realnappiesforlondon.org.uk.

ENDS

For further information please contact:

Liz Sutton, Communications Co-ordinator 020 7481 9004 or
Kay Wagland, RNfL Project Co-ordinator 020 7481 9004 or 07940 307603.

Notes to editors

Media are invited to attend the launch at 11am on Friday 29 June 2007 at Coram's Fields, Guilford Street, London WC1N 1DN. Please contact Liz Sutton or Kay Wagland on 020 7481 9004 if you want to attend. Attendance is by invitation only, and professionals and policy-makers in waste management, housing, regeneration, health and social work.

Real Nappies for London will offer free nappy vouchers to qualifying parents or parents-to-be in participating boroughs. All such parents will get an information pack and be invited to local events, such as 'nappuccino' coffee mornings where they can see samples, find out more and meet people using real nappies, in a relaxed atmosphere. The number of vouchers available is limited in some boroughs.

The scheme is funded by participating boroughs and supported by London Community Recycling Network, which will administer it, and the Mayor of London. WEN will continue to be involved to guide the scheme through its first year.

RNfL is the result of a three-year collaboration between Women's Environmental Network, Bexley Council and the GLA, working with other London boroughs and hospitals. The research and development phases were funded by the London Recycling Fund, The Big Lottery CRED Programme, Western Riverside Environment fund and participating London boroughs and waste authorities.

Independent research for RNfL by GfK NOP, conducted between June 2005 to July 2006, showed that while parents were concerned about environmental impacts of nappies and the cost of disposables, it was convenience that drove their behaviour. Parents who hadn't tried cloth nappies held an outdated image of washable nappies, believing them to be time consuming and difficult, but 69% of those who had participated in the pilot schemes trying modern real nappies found them easier than they had thought and 83% said they would continue to use them after the pilot period.

WEN is a national membership charity that campaigns on environment and health issues from a women's perspective. For more on its work see www.wen.org.uk. WEN has worked to raise awareness about the environmental impact of nappies since it was founded in 1988. It has co-ordinated Real Nappy Week for many years and published ground-breaking research including Preventing Nappy Waste, by Ann Link, the first investigation of the waste problem associated with disposable nappies, in 1996, and Nappies and the NHS - waste prevention and a fair choice for parents, Elizabeth Hartigan & Ann Link, WEN, March 2004. WEN believes real nappies put parents in control of their environmental impact and have a significantly lower impact than disposables when all the impacts, including manufacture, transport, use, washing and disposal are taken into account.