Women's Environmental Network's Real Nappy Campaign was Highly Commended in the Awareness Raising category of the Biffaward Awards 2003. The awards recognise and reward the outstanding achievements of projects supported by Biffaward.

This is the second year that Women's Environmental Network's work on nappy waste prevention has been shortlisted for a Biffaward award. "We are delighted to have been shortlisted twice and highly commended this year. It is reflective of the way our project is building in strength and momentum. The 2003 campaign has been even more successful than 2002 on which the awards were judged so we are hopeful that we will win in the category next time around," said Maeve Murphy, Real Nappy Project Officer at Women's Environmental Network.

2003 has seen support for the campaign rise to include over a half of all UK local authorities while nappy waste prevention is cited in the Waste Implementation Programme as one of two initial strands to lead national waste prevention.

Real Nappy Week, the annual focus for the campaign, runs from 29th March to 4th April 2004.

For further information contact Elizabeth Hartigan or Liz Sutton,
Women's Environmental Network, PO Box 30626, London E1 1TZ
Telephone: 020 7481 9004, Email: nappies@wen.org.uk

NOTES TO EDITORS

Waste Reduction
8 million nappies are thrown away every day in the UK. With the cost to each local authority in hundreds of thousands of pounds per year on disposal it is not surprising that nappy schemes now play a key role in local authorities' waste strategies.

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.

Health
Disposable nappies are made of superabsorbent chemicals, paper pulp and plastics while real nappies are mostly made of natural fabrics. If you want the best solution, organic cotton and hemp nappies and organic wool overpants are available at reasonable cost.