green parenting articles

Recycling Facts by Arabella Greatorex

These make quite alarming reading - if we want to have any kind of planet to pass on to our children and grandchildren, perhaps we need to be a little more aware of our actions.

No one has to save the planet single-handedly but if we each took a few small steps, we can achieve great things together.

• We get through nearly 3 billion disposable nappies each year in the UK alone and around 90% of these end up on landfill sites. Disposable nappies take 500 years to decompose.
• Over 20,000 tonnes of batteries are sent to landfill site in the UK each year. It takes 50 times more energy to make a battery than it gives during its life.
• Each day, we produce enough rubbish to fill Trafalgar Square to the height of Nelson's Column.
• Each year, one person gets through 90 drink cans, 70 food cans, 107 bottles and jars and 45kg of plastic.
• 55 million 2-litre plastic bottles are thrown away in Bristol each year.
• The UK uses about 12 billion cans each year - that's enough to stretch to the moon and back!
• On average each person in England and Wales produces nearly 500kg of household waste a year.
• 7 million trees are cut down every year just to make disposable nappies.
• The average British family throws away 6 trees worth of paper in their household bin a year.
• Every tonne of paper recycled saves 17 trees.
• 25% of household waste is packaging and we throw £36 million worth of aluminium into landfill sites.
• Five out of six glass bottles are thrown away.

Eco-parenting by Arabella Greatorex

Arabella Greatorex, owner of The Natural Nursery, reports on the rapidly rising demand for natural, environmentally friendly and ethically sound parenting products and highlights some of the concerns that have fuelled these demands.

Organic Food

There has been much media debate around the promotion of heavily processed foods to children, part of a long standing concern about the quality of food on offer in the UK. While some say the jury is still out on issues such as pesticide residues in fruit and vegetables, it is worth noting that only 30 additives are allowed in organic food, compared to over 300 in non-organic. Specifically, organic food bans the use of tartrazine (linked to hyperactivity in children) and GM ingredients.

The Soil Association reports that sales in organic food grew by 10% last year overall and purchases from farm shops and box schemes by a whopping 16%. This means that over 75% of households bought some organic food during 2004.

Organic baby and toddler foods now account for nearly half of total baby foods in the UK, with its market share growing rapidly, highlighting the level of concern felt by parents, and is a trend that looks set to continue.

Cloth Nappies

Modern cloth nappies bear no resemblance to the old-fashioned terry squares you probably wore as a child. They are cheaper and more hygienic to use than their disposable counterparts and parents are fast cottoning on to this. Ten years ago, only 2% of parents used cloth nappies; that figure has now grown to over 15% and is rising steadily.

Despite this growth in cloth nappy use, Bristol City Council still spends around £500,000 each year dealing with disposable nappies. Conventional disposable nappies can contain up to 200 chemicals and some estimates say they will take over 200 years to decompose.

The alternative is to use cloth nappies, which are now available in a wide range of shapes and sizes and can be just as easy to use as disposables. You can choose from so soft organic terry or a natural eco-look or funky fleece prints or even retro patterns to really make a statement. They can be flat, shaped or stuffed, depending upon your childs personal needs and you will find other 'clothies' are more than happy to help you decide which nappy is right for you.

They could help you save money as well; the Womens Environmental Network estimate that savings will be around £500 for the first child and more for subsequent children, even taking into account the cost of home laundering.

Chemical Free Toiletries

Your skin will absorb around 60% of products applied to it and Green People estimates that the average woman will absorb about 2kg of chemicals through toiletries and cosmetics over one year, up to 75,000 different chemicals! We all know how sensitive a babys skin is and rates of eczema are rising fast with almost a third of babies now suffering from it.

Many people believe that the chemicals in the lotions and potions that we use are to blame. Even some so called 'natural' products contain a range of chemicals that are believed to cause or exacerbate skin conditions or be carcinogenic, even if they are originally plant derived. Worryingly, a product needs to contain only 1% natural ingredients to be legally labelled 'natural'.

Natural, organic and chemical free toiletries are no longer the preserve of the health food shop but are widely available on the high street or from specialist internet companies. The Soil Association estimate that there will be a 20% increase in the number of licensed organic manufacturers this year, reflecting the huge surge in demand, especially amongst families with young children.

Fair trade

When you are buying clothes or toys for your baby, international trade may seem like a remote issue but by choosing carefully, you could make all the difference to someone else's life. Farmers in the developing world are ill-equipped to cope with dramatic changes in commodity prices, which are caused by factors outside the control of the individuals most concerned.

Parents are being offered an increasing range of fairly or ethically traded products, including clothes, shoes, toys, toiletries and nappies. Sales of 'Fairtrade' marked goods are now well over £100m per year in the UK alone, up 46% on last year and we eat a third of a million fair trade bananas every DAY!

The growth in organic cotton

Most people assume that as cotton is a natural product, it is produced naturally, unfortunately, this is not the case. Around 150 grams of hazardous chemical pesticides will be used to grow enough cotton to make one t-shirt. The cotton farming industry accounts for about 1/4 of the world's insecticide use as well as huge amounts of fertilisers that can end up in the water system and food chain.

The World Health Organisation estimates that 20,000 people die every year in developing countries as a result of poisoning from pesticides used on non-organic cotton. Worryingly, much of the worlds cotton production comes from genetically modified crops: over 2/3rds of Chinas cotton crop is GM.

Luckily, more and more organic textiles are now available and there has been an 80% increase in the worldwide production of organic cotton in the last 2 years, with sales in the UK alone now worth over £20m from almost zero a couple of years ago. You can now buy organic clothes, bedding, towels, sheepskins and nappies from a range of suppliers - even good old Marks and Spencer sell a range of organic cotton yoga clothes.

Katharine Hamnett, fashion designer, says: "This is part of a rapidly growing trend reflecting increasing consumer awareness and concern over global issues to do with the impact of pesticides, herbicides, dioxins and toxic chemicals used in textiles, on the environment and human heath. The good news is that this shows people are actually looking for positive alternatives."

And for the daddies

The Ecologist Magazine recently studied the contents of a can of shaving gel and found it to contain 'several skin irritants, four potential carcinogens, three central nervous system poisons and two reproductive toxins' - and all this before breakfast!

Brief guide to real nappies by Lisa Cole

The Poo Fairies, Real Nappy Services by Lisa Cole

I clearly remember pinning down my youngest sister with my elbow while she screamed, wriggled and kicked away my carefully origamied terry nappy. She swears you can still see where I accidentally impaled her with safety pins to this day, and I didnt do it on purpose no matter what she says. Some years on, real nappies dont use pins and its almost impossible to scar someone for life with Velcro. These days you dont even have to wash them yourself. In civilised 21st century Bristol there are people who swap dirty nappies for clean. I call them the poo fairies and they dont cost as much as you would expect.

A prefold is a pad made from layers of cotton that folds into a waterproof outer cover, known as a wrap. Babies grow so quickly that you can hire the first two sizes of wraps and there are several types to fit different bums. Because the wraps fasten with Velcro you can bodge the nappy onto a wriggling baby and adjust it as many times as the baby will put up with. Its simple to open up one side to check if it really was a poo or just the loudest fart ever. The wraps are the only thing you need to wash big poos go down the loo, or in the compost bin and the prefold goes into a bag in a bin that comes with the service. When I go out I just take a plastic bag to stick the dirties in until I get home.

Ordinary disposables they cost around 13p a nappy, the nappy service is 16p a nappy, 21p if you include wrap hire. The cost to the environment of ordinary disposables is well documented, according to the Women's Environmental Network they have over two and a half times the impact of service washed nappies. Eco friendly disposables work out at about 20p a nappy but are either bleached or contain gel and are not 100% biodegradable, also none of them are made locally so you can add poo miles onto their ecological impact. Also, real nappies are supposed to be better for babies hips and may make it easier to potty train as the child is very aware of a soggy real nappy and wants to get out of it, instead of languishing in disposable dry gel oblivion. Real nappies are not as time consuming as you might think. I have secretly raced other mothers changing their babies with disposables and won.

Buying Second Hand Nappy Wraps by Lisa Cole

As I have embraced poverty wholeheartedly as an alternative to working full time, I am keen to save money wherever possible. Also, any white garments that enter my house are sacrificial and become grubby shades of grey as soon as I look at them. So I needed cheap colourful nappy wraps, as soon as possible. I turned to the internet for help and discovered a whole world of people with wrap fixation, just like me. It seems that America, who I always thought to be a disposable culture, is actually packed with stay at home mums who not only make their own wraps but also sell them and sometimes even publish the patterns on the internet. And there is a small movement (unintentional joke, sorry) of Brits who make their own and are willing to talk about it.

The only difficulty lies in getting the right fabric and learning how to sew whilst holding a small wriggly boy under one arm. Second-hand seemed the way to go. Internet auctions can be pretty fruitful and they can be good fun, but slightly dangerous if you are the type to get carried away. I am waiting for a delivery of 6 pro-wraps that cost me £20 so I saved a fair bit of money there. There are also notice boards devoted to the buying and selling of real nappies. Of course there is a risk that you dont get exactly what you want, but sometimes there are photos and if you know the brand, you will know exactly what you get. I have enjoyed my little spending spree on the net, and I am looking forward to selling the wraps on when Small gets larger.

Nappy Wrap Reviews by Lisa Cole

I have become a woman obsessed with nappy wraps. I try to engage other real nappy users in lengthy and dull conversations about them and the prefold vs all-in-one debate can keep me ranting for hours. The reason behind this is that my small boy, who used to wear the tiniest wraps on the tightest setting, is now a big chunky thumping lad who has just graduated to the heady world of medium size. So it was a slightly tearful farewell to hired wraps (how could he be that small once?), and a leap into the harsh reality of buying wraps.

Diaperaps and Proraps are pretty much the same thing, thick waterproof fabric with leg gussets. Although these never leaked with us until they got too small I found the gussets tricky to keep clean.

The Junior Joy wrap is plain white with leg gussets. It seemed a bit stiff at the top and I was reluctant to try it at first but now it is a definite contender for my favourite wrap. I like it because it fits high up on the waist and the gussets are deep and make a good holder for a prefold. It also wins the stickiest velcro competition.

Cotton Bottoms or Bummis are lovely because they come in colourful prints and they are virtually indestructible. They have a flap to tuck the prefold into and fold back tabs for fluff free washing. They work fine without gussets but the small size started to leak on my small when he weighed 12lbs.

Top of the wraps for me, and the hired wrap I really didnt want to give back, is the Motherese whale print. It has a deep velcro strip, gussets and a flap at the front to hold the prefold in place. It is the lightest and softest in my collection, it never yet leaked and it didnt complain when it accidentally got washed at 60 degrees with coloureds. Motherese saved me the trouble of ruining my own whites by making the wrap the muggy colour that I get whenever a white thing enters my house what a timesaver! Typically this is the most expensive wrap but I think its worth the extra.

New on the scene is the Nature Babies multisized poppered wrap. This is a very clever idea; one set of poppers shortens the wrap for smaller babies and 3 settings of poppers on the waist make it very flexible in terms of fit, which in turn makes it a good value wrap. It is very soft and comes in lovely bright patterns and colours. Admittedly I am a big velcro fan and was slightly biased against this wrap before I tried it. I did find the poppers fiddly, but it didnt leak and the small boy didnt object at all so I assume it was pretty comfortable. I also found it difficult to wash.

I have discovered that the more the merrier when it comes to wraps. I have a collection of about 15 now and I do a wash every other day. Having more means that I can keep the changing bag stocked up with nappies ready made up and I win races against disposable users in changing rooms. I like to use a variety of wraps to prevent rubbing my sons legs in the same place all the time. He lets me know quite audibly when he wants me to use a different type.

The medium size of wraps should last some time, so reluctantly I have to stop buying the things until he grows out of them.

Why switch to washable menstrual pads? by Lisa Armstrong

There are several reasons, such as environmental health, personal health, and economy. Each year in North America alone it is estimated that 20 billion pads and tampons end up in our sewage system. Pads take an estimated 500 years to decompose and most contain plastics and dioxin. Producing cloth pads uses fewer natural resources than producing disposable menstrual products. Cloth pads also do not clog sewage treatment machinery and use of them reduces solid waste in the land fills.

Cloth pads contain fewer chemicals.

For those who are chemically sensitive or prefer to avoid the chemicals, cloth pads offer an alternative. Use of cloth pads made of organic unbleached cotton further reduces personal and environmental chemical exposure.

Cloth pads are comfortable.

Many women say that cotton flannel makes the most comfortable and softest menstrual pad.

Cloth pads are economical.

The initial expense is greater, but considering that the cloth pads may easily last 5 or more years, the long term cost is less.

Using cloth menstrual pads is a wonderful way to honor and respect yourself, your cycle, and the Earth.

Many women buy them for their daughters as a healthy way to welcome them into their womanhood.

Why use unbleached or organic cotton fabric? What is color grown cotton?

While switching to cloth menstrual pads reduces the amount of chemicals you are exposed to, there are still chemicals used in the growing of cotton and production of cloth. Unbleached cotton is cotton that has not gone through a chlorine or chlorine-compound bleaching process. Instead hydrogen peroxide may be used for a 'whitening' process, and the fabric produced appears more 'off-white' than the 'whiter than white' that menstrual product manufacturers want us to believe means is sterile/clean. Organic cotton is cotton that is grown using no chemicals. Not all cotton grows white or off-white; some of it grows more green or brown. Color grown cotton is cotton that has been allowed to remain its naturally grown color, without bleaching or dyeing it.

Are cloth pads difficult to care for?

You can either rinse your soiled pads immediately or store them in an air-tight plastic bag until rinsing. Then soak them in cold water until you are ready to wash them, preferably washing with a natural laundry soap. If there is staining, consider using an oxygen-based bleach such as Oxy-Boost, and line drying in the sun. Sunlight is a natural disinfectant and bleaching agent.

While it may take slightly longer to care for your washable cotton pads than to use disposable products, you can choose to think of it as giving yourself a gift. A gift of slowing down and living deliberately in a world already so full of moving fast and mindless modern conveniences. A gift of recognizing that menstruation is normal and healthy and not something to be embarrassed about or to pretend it doesn't happen to you. A gift of taking responsibility for your health and the environmental concerns that affect us all.