NI Council makes a big push for environmentally friendly nappy waste

A Northern Ireland council is making a big push for environmentally friendly nappy waste.

Ards and North Down Borough Council have agreed to two measures to drastically reduce the amount of used and disposable nappies pushing up the borough’s landfill costs.

Councillors at the November meeting of the Environment Committee agreed to a DUP motion to make an appeal to Stormont to set up a nappy collection scheme in order to meet recycling targets, in the light of proposals at Stormont to reduce capacity and collection of general use grey bins.

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Councillors also agreed to set up a local cloth nappy trial in the borough.

The council states: “There is a significant environmental impact and cost to the council associated with disposable nappies. Landfilling disposable nappies costs councils thousands of pounds a year.

“According to the Waster and Resources Action Programme, by the time one baby is potty trained a baby could use 4,000 to 6,000 disposable nappies. The UK disposes of around three billion disposable nappies each year, representing an estimated two percent to three percent of all household waste.

“It is estimated that by using reusable nappies, the average household waste of families with babies can be halved, avoiding an average 750 kg per household per year.

“Cloth nappies are an alternative to disposable nappies and the council is keen to show its support to those that are prepared to use cloth nappies as an alternative to disposable nappies.”

The council will offer cloth nappy trial kits through the borough Library Group, which will provide information to interested parents and carers. Up to 30 people will be able to avail of the kits, on a two week trial basis, then the kit is returned at the end of the trial period and sanitised before being loaned to the next family.

The budget from the council is £1,080 and only available to residents of Ards and North Down Borough Council.

The DUP motion, from Alderman Stephen McIlveen, states: “This council notes the 70 percent recycling target set out in the Climate Change Act 2022 and that the current household recycling average is 50.7 percent.

“It notes the aims and intentions around the (Stormont) consultation “Rethinking our resources: measures for climate action and a circular economy in NI” includes the reduction in grey bin capacity by either volume of bin or three-weekly collections.

“It notes that a nappy collection scheme was not referred to in “Rethinking our resources” despite around four percent of NI residual waste being made up of disposable nappies and other absorbent hygiene products.

“It notes with concern the impact reduced grey bin capacity will have on those households disposing of nappies and/or other absorbent hygiene products as well as the amount of recyclable materials such products contain.”

The council vowed to write to Andrew Muir, Minister of the Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs to appeal for the implementation of a NI-wide nappy collection scheme to meet targets and support families facing reduction in grey bins, or general waste bins not for recycling.

The council says it would be “happy to engage with the department on how to best deliver such a scheme.”

Alderman McIlveen said: “While various types of reusable nappies are on the market, disposable nappies are still the most attractive option for parents. At present the only bin that can take these disposable nappies is the grey bin - so they go straight into landfill.

“While reusable nappies are more environmentally friendly, we need to acknowledge that we cannot ignore the fact that huge numbers of disposable nappies will still be making their way into our grey bins.”

He said: “However, nappies are recyclable. We can remove these from the grey bin, collect them separately, and they can produce useful recycled products.”

He added: “Nappies contain recyclable materials that are being thrown away here in Northern Ireland, such as cellulose, fibres and plastics. Members of this council may be aware of a trial in Wales where nappy fibres were added to the bitumen in asphalt roads, and these were shown to last twice as long as other roads. Carmartenshire County Council is now resurfacing its roads with this product.

“This is a prime example of a local circular economy in action. Nappies have been collected in Wales since 2009. They are recycled in Japan, the Netherlands, and Canada. In Italy, Pampers operates a deposit bin at local supermarkets in exchange for vouchers. We are well behind the curve on this issue, but we should be drawing on best practice elsewhere.”

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