Reduce your waste

Looking for ways to reduce your waste? Here are our top tips:

• Try the Love Food Hate Waste portion planner and see how much food, money and waste you can save
• Register with the Mail Preference Service and limit the amount of junk mail you recieve
• Buy concentrated products and refills, like detergent and coffee and cut down on packaging
• Use rechargeable batteries, they last up to 1000 longer
• Remember to take a cloth bag or old plastic bags shopping with you
• Make your own compost from your garden waste and fruit and veg peelings
• Switch to real nappies, and you could cut your waste by 50 per cent

Real Nappy Week: Myth busting

There is a lot of rumors about reusable nappies but we are here to set you straight and let you know the truth about real nappies.

Myth – Reusable nappies leak. The truth is reusable nappies are no more likely to leak than their disposable counter parts

Fact – Reusable nappies can help your child potty train earlier

Myth – Reusable nappies cause nappy rash. Reusable nappies are actually better for your baby’s skin because they are made out of natural fabrics.

Fact – Reusable nappies can save you up to £800 a child. If you are planning on having another child you can also save your nappies to use with them, increasing your savings even further.

Myth – Reusable nappies are no better for the environment. Actually reusable nappies are 40% better for the environment; this is calculated by taking into account all aspects of production, transport, washing (reusable only) and disposal.

Disposable V Real nappies

Real

• Real nappies are 40% better for the environment than their disposable alternatives
• You can choose to limit your impact on the environment  further by using ecological wash settings to clean real nappies
• Because reusable nappies are made out of natural fabrics they are far better for your babies bum

Disposable

• The average cost for disposable nappies for one child is a huge £1200
• 50% of rubbish from the average one-baby family is made up of disposable nappies
• In Dorset alone 7 million disposable nappies enter the household waste stream each year which costs £500,000 to process
• Disposable nappies take up to 500 years to fully decompose and release harmful methane gas in the process

 Dorset Waste Partnership is offering a voucher incentive scheme  saving you up to £30 on the cost of purchasing real nappies.  A list of stockists is available through the Dorset Waste Partnership.

County Show time

If you missed us at the Melplash Show in August, our recycling officers will be at the Dorchester County Show this weekend (3 and 4 September 2011). Again, we’ll have a whole range of waste prevention information available including leaflets on home composting and food digesters, tips for reducing food waste and real nappy information. We’ll be there to answer any of your questions or queries about waste and recycling, so come along and see us.

You’ll also get another chance to enter our ‘Guess how many cans are in a bale’ competition, to be in with a shot at winning £25 worth of Amazon vouchers.

See us at the Melplash Show

Our recycling officers will have a whole range of waste prevention information and activities at this year’s Melplash Show, which takes place this Thursday (25 August 2011).

With an outdoors-themed stand, there will be lots of information and advice on many aspects of reducing waste. In our garden area, you can find out more about home composting and Green Cone food digesters and by our barbecue you’ll be able to pick up some ‘scorching BBQ’ tips as well as tasty leftover recipe cards to reduce food waste.

You can also check out our washing line of modern reusable nappies and see they are shaped, use modern fasteners and are simple to use. Find out more about our real nappy incentive scheme too.

Plus, there will be a chance to win £25 of Amazon vouchers, simply enter our ‘Guess how many cans are in a bale’ competition. This is part of our aerosols campaign, which aims to highlight that aerosol cans – like empty deodorant, hair spray, air freshener, and furniture polish cans – can all be recycled using your kerbside collection service. 

So come along and join in the fun!

Ditch the disposables – Real Nappy Week is here!

To celebrate Real Nappy Week (16 – 22 May) we are holding a series of real nappy roadshows to raise awareness of how parents can save money and help the environment by swapping to machine washable nappies.

Modern reusable nappies are shaped, have biodegradable liners, use modern fasteners and are easy and simple to use.

Dorset mum, Clare Angus, has been using real nappies with her four month old daughter, Isabella, since she was a few days old. Clare said:

“Isabella is very happy and comfortable wearing real nappies. Plus we always have the option of switching to using a combination of washable and disposable nappies when needed – for example when going away on holiday.”

Did you know it is estimated that disposable nappies cost around £1,000 per child from baby to toddler? Using real nappies instead can help parents cut this cost by over half.

Find out about our real nappy incentive scheme or read more here.

 

Real nappies hit the road

From baby to toddler, it’s estimated that disposable nappies cost parents around £1,000 per child. Parents and parents-to-be can cut this cost by over half by using real nappies instead.

We are running a series of real nappy roadshows around the county during May for new mums and dads to discover more about real nappies and ask any questions.

Roadshows are taking place on:

• 10 May 2010 Christchurch Market 8.30am – 1pm
• 11 May 2010 Bond Street, Weymouth 9:30am – 1pm
• 12 May 2010 South Street, Dorchester 10am – 12.30pm
• 13 May 2010 Queen Elizabeth Leisure Centre, Wimborne 10am – 12.30pm
• 26 May 2010 Sainsbury’s, Wareham 10am – 2pm
• 27 May 2010 Corn Exchange, Blandford 8.30am – 1pm
• 29 May 2010 Bucky Doo Square, Bridport 8.30am – 1pm

So come along and find out more!

Happy babies

Our real nappy incentive scheme, offering parents and parents-to-be £30 towards the cost of buying real nappies, has now been running for two years. We asked mums and dads that have used the scheme to let us know about their experience of using real nappies. Great news, the results revealed that a massive 98 per cent said they are continuing to use them!

Here are the questionnaire results:

• 94 per cent said they would use real nappies on subsequent children
• 94 per cent said they would recommend real nappies to other parents
• 87 per cent haven’t needed any assistance using real nappies
• 43 per cent reported that the main reason they use them is to prevent waste going to landfill
• 28 per cent said their main reason for using them was to make financial savings

More than 250 parents completed our questionnaire.

Find out more about modern real nappies and our incentives scheme here.

Love real nappies but hate washing them?

Good news for parents and parents-to-be living in the Dorset County Council area, we’ve teamed up with local company, Top Bottoms (opens in new window) to offer you the option to use your real nappy voucher for a new nappy laundry scheme.

Part of our incentive scheme, parents can apply for a £30 voucher to help towards the cost of buying real nappies at one of  the Dorset listed retailers. If you would prefer, you can now use this voucher towards the cost of using a nappy laundry service.

Find out more or apply here

Oh baby!

New mums and dads can discover more about real nappies at the Corn Exchange in Dorchester on Wednesday 10 February.

We are running a real nappy drop in session between 12:30pm and 2pm. This is your chance to find out about a range of real nappies, ask any questions and learn more about our incentive scheme. So come on, drop by.

Modern real nappies are now shaped, machine washable, can be used with biodegradable liners and feature modern fasteners. Plus, from birth to toddler, they work out cheaper than using disposable versions.

There will be more drop in sessions across the county throughout the year, so keep checking our blog to see when and where your nearest is.

We hope to see you there.