WEN

5 September 2006
Smelliest element packed in bins and trundled off to the landfill

London boroughs will be invited by Women’s Environmental Network (WEN) and Bexley Council, to sign up to a pan-London incentive scheme at City Hall on Tuesday 19 September. Real Nappies for London is designed to help reduce a significant element of household biodegradable waste, but will be shown to have further benefits.

With a strategic view in mind, Bexley Council and WEN are inviting London borough Members and senior executives to the launch, which will have a celebratory air as the culmination of three years work by the partnership.

WEN and Bexley, along with five other London authorities piloted three different types of scheme to encourage parents to move to washable or ‘real’ nappies instead of bin-clogging disposables. They were evaluated by independent research company GfK NOP which also surveyed parents’ attitudes around using real and disposable nappies. The results were used to develop the most effective scheme, which is expected to go live across the capital next year. The aim is to provide a simple, consistent message using common marketing, sharing resources and skills and reducing the costs of developing and running local initiatives.

With kitchen waste now being diverted with other recyclables and the prospect of fortnightly, rather than weekly residual waste collections, it is now even more urgent that authorities find a way to reduce nappy waste.

As well as the high level of inter-borough collaboration, potential cost-savings and links made with the NHS to help further the reach of the scheme, the launch will highlight opportunities for interdepartmental cooperation provided by RNfL. These include:

promoting real nappies as an anti-poverty measure, as parents can save £500 or more per baby by using real nappies rather than disposables;
real nappy education providing tools for community engagement, health awareness and youth activity (particularly around teenage pregnancy);
potential for community enterprise and other local business development.

With this strategic view, RNfL can help meet targets and draw on resources and skills in regeneration, community development, housing and youth and social services as well as waste departments.

Further details can be obtained from Kay Wagland at WEN on nappies2@wen.org.uk 020 7481 9004 or Rebecca Goodwin at Bexley Council on Rebecca.Goodwin@bexley.gov.uk 01322 356890

For further information please contact:
Kay Wagland at WEN on nappies2@wen.org.uk 020 7481 9004 / 07940 307603

Notes to editors:
1. WEN is a national membership charity that campaigns on environmental and health issues from a women’s perspective. It educates, informs and empowers women and men who care about the environment.

2. London generates 90,000 tonnes of nappy waste a year, 90% of which goes to landfill.

3. The RNfL research, undertaken by market research company GfK NOP, showed that while parents were concerned about environmental impacts of nappies and the cost of disposables, it was the 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.

4. Real Nappies for London is funded by the Big Lottery Fund’s Community Recycling and Economic Development (CRED) Programme, the London Recycling Fund (LRF) and the Western Riverside Environmental Fund (WREF).

The London Recycling Fund helped London boroughs and waste authorities to promote waste minimisation and recycle more. The Fund was a joint initiative of the Mayor of London and the Greater London Authority, the Association of London Government and London Waste Action and was supported by the Department for Environmental Food and Rural Affairs and WRAP.

The CRED Programme awarded £118,189 to Real Nappies for London, through the Big Lottery Fund’s Transforming Waste Initiative. CRED is managed by the Royal Society for Wildlife Trusts (RSWT) and nine consortium partners. The programme will have awarded £36.5 million of Big Lottery Fund money in grants on between £50,000 to £300,000 to community based recycling, reuse and composting initiatives in England before the end of 2007.