Home laundered nappies could save parents over €1000 on the cost of keeping a baby in nappies. Over half a million nappies are thrown away every day in Ireland, that's over two hundred million nappies a year.

Assumptions

Paediatricians recommend that babies’ nappies are changed after every sleep and feed. This works out at an average of six changes a day as suggested by paediatricians Miriam Stoppard and Dr Christopher Green.¹

Disposable Nappies
The average price per disposable nappy is 31.7 cents.
This is based on WEN research (March 2006) of both branded and own brand nappies. The same research found the average price of branded nappies to be 31.8 cents per nappy and an average of 21.4 cents per nappy for own-brand. Branded nappies hold 99% of the market.²

At an average six changes per day at 31.7 cents per nappy this equates to an average cost of €13.31 per week, and an overall spend of €1730.30 over 2.5 years.³

Real Nappies
Real Nappies vary widely in their cost depending on the style chosen. You can buy all the nappies, waterproof covers, and fastenings required for the 2.5 years on the high street for just under €75. The same amount of money would only buy six weeks of disposables.⁴

Boots⁵

Motherease⁶

Bambino Mio⁷

Laundry Costs

The average lifespan of a washing machine is 9 years.⁸

The Average price of washing machines including washer/dryers for Jan – Dec 2005 is: €395⁹

Therefore:
Depreciation based on 30% use of a machine to wash nappies over 2.5 years, where the machine has a life expectancy of nine years:

Washing Powder

For a standard wash, the weight of washing powder used per wash is 100gms ¹⁰
Average cost of washing powder per wash is 35 cents.¹¹

Average number of washes for real nappy use is 2.8 per week over 130 weeks or 364 washes.

Electricity ¹²

Most real nappy manufacturers recommend a 60°C wash

NHS guidelines suggest only 65°C for hospital disinfections cycles, if the temperature is maintained for 10 minutes, or 71°C if maintained for not less than 3 minutes.¹³

The energy consumption for different energy rated washing machines for a 60°wash¹⁴ is shown below:

The average unit cost for electricity for 2005 is 14.45 cents per kWh.¹⁵

Therefore, based on a B energy rated machine, a load of nappies washed at 60° uses 1.12kWh and costs 16.18 cents.

If a family has an average of 20 nappies and uses an average of six per day they need to be laundered every 2.5-3 days, using a maximum of 3.14 units of energy per week assuming a wash every 2.5 days. This also assumes that no nappies are laundered with the family's other laundry, which happens quite frequently in reality.

Overall laundry costs over 2.5 years

Washing machine depreciation + detergent + energy

Overall cost of home laundered nappies over 2.5 years

Disposable v Real Terry Nappy Nappy Cost Comparison

Disposable v Real Shaped Nappies Cost Comparison

€1736 @ 6 changes a day¹⁹
€1447 @ 5 changes a day²⁰
€1158 @ 4 changes a day²¹

References

¹ Dr Christopher Green, Babies! A Parents’ Guide to Enjoying Baby’s First Year, Simon & Schuster 2002. Stoppard, Miriam, New Babycare Book: A Practical Guide to the First Three Years, Dorling Kindersley.

² Euromonitor International 2004

³ €1441.92 based on 5 changes over 2.5 years at average 31.7 cents per nappy, € 1153.53 for 4 changes.

⁴ At an average 6 changes per week at 31.7 cents per nappy: 31.7c x 6 changes/day x 7days/week x 6 weeks = € 79.88

⁵ Boots Ireland

⁶ Motherease Ireland

⁷ www.littleangels.ie

⁸ Sheffield Hallam University

⁹ GFK Marketing Services Ltd

¹⁰ UK Cleaning Products Industry

¹¹ WEN research March 2006

¹² Electricity Supply Board (ESB)

¹³ HSG(95) 18 – NHS Laundry Guidelines

¹⁴ UK Government’s Market Transformation Programme sourced from National Energy Foundation at: www.natenergy.org.uk/washing.htm (update as at: 5 Jan 2006)

¹⁵ ESB

¹⁶ Based on Boots price above.

¹⁷ Based on Motherease price above.

¹⁸ Based on average price from WEN research.

¹⁹ 31.8c X 6 (per day) X 7 (per week) X 130 weeks = € 1736.28 rounded to € 1736

²⁰ 31.8c X 5 (per day) X 7 (per week) X 130 weeks = € 1447

²¹ 31.8c X 4 (per day) X 7 (per week) X 130 weeks = € 1157.52 rounded to € 1158