National Activity
The Real Nappy Project works with the government, local authorities, the NHS and health professionals, the media, businesses, real nappy networks and environmental and parenting groups. We provide support, information and advice, and run conferences and national events including Real Nappy Week (RNW). Support for the national campaign is growing every year, with separate but linked campaigns in Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland:

Local Authorities
The Waste Minimisation Act 1998 empowers local authorities to engage in waste-preventing initiatives. According the Department of Environment, Transport and the Regions' document Waste Strategy 2000, "Under Best Value, local authorities must set targets for waste reduction separate from recycling targets, taking account of the Waste Strategy 2000 and recognising that waste reduction will be a priority wherever practicable".

Individual councils spend hundreds of thousands of pounds a year on the collection and disposal of nappy waste. Councils can save money on waste collection and disposal costs, reduce the amount of nappy waste going to landfill or incinerators and support local sustainable businesses by encouraging residents to try real nappies.

Over two thirds of UK local authorities now support Real Nappy Week. WEN encourages councils to implement real nappy awareness-raising and promotional schemes as part of their waste strategy. We provide well-researched nappy facts, promotional support materials, examples of what other local authorities are doing and useful contacts. We can also promote your initiative via our Partnerships Index and Real Nappy Week publicity.

There are many simple and free or low-cost ways for councils to promote cloth nappies:

Hospitals
The NHS is an essential source of information to UK parents and plays a highly influential role in the choices made by parents. All expectant parents in the UK are encouraged to attend ante-natal and parentcraft courses at their local maternity hospital where they are usually shown only how to put on a disposable nappy. In most cases, parents who wish to use real nappies in hospital, and adult patients with incontinence, are unable to because of the lack of provision for washing them. WEN's Real Nappy Project is requesting the NHS to change its stance from the promotion of disposable nappies towards providing UK parents and incontinence patients with the opportunity to make an informed choice between disposable and real nappies.

A number of hospitals around the UK have already adopted on-ward cloth nappy use and benefit from clinical waste savings, while providing parents with the information and experience to make a fair choice. WEN's report, Nappies and the NHS – waste prevention and a fair choice for parents (150k pdf), provides details of these hospital schemes.

A recent study by the University of Surrey found that parents are more likely to choose cloth nappies for their babies when they are provided with information early in their pregnancy and are given the opportunity to try them out during their stay in hospital and when the baby is born.

Midwives, antenatal instructors and health visitors can promote fair choice by informing new parents and parents-to-be about real nappies. They can arrange cloth nappy displays in maternity wards, and invite real nappy network representatives or local cloth nappy agents/ consultants to do demonstrations to staff and in antenatal classes. WEN has produced an educational toolkit for health professionals. The WEN Health Professional's Real Nappy Toolkit is designed to provide midwives, health visitors and parent educators with all the information and samples they need to inform parents of the choices available to them. For more information on the Toolkit, please click here.

Nurseries and childminders
Nurseries can also save money on waste disposal and influence parents in a positive way by using real nappies. There are no restrictions regarding what type of nappy nurseries must use. Ofsted, who inspect nurseries, only state that proper hygiene procedures must be followed when changing and storing nappies. Soiled cloth nappies need to be stored safely until collection/laundering, just as used disposables do. Here is a list of nurseries that use real nappies and are also happy to be contacted.

Parents can show how real nappies are used and work out a convenient routine with the nursery for storage and collection. Nurseries can arrange a demonstration by a parent or local cloth nappy agent. They can help spread awareness by putting up real nappy posters on notice boards and distributing leaflets (available from WEN) to parents.

MPs
Each year the Real Nappy Project gathers a list of MPs supporting Real Nappy Week. MPs can put out press releases in their constituencies to help publicise the Week and champion the campaign in other ways. Early Day Motions have also helped keep Parliament aware of the campaign.