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The CENTAMETER is an innovative new electronic device, which measures the electricity being used and displays the cost per hour on a portable display located inside your home or business.

Councils Model Greener Future

Sunday, August 17, 2008
Councils around New Zealand are backing their vision for a greener future and desire for decreasing amounts of waste going into landfills with a series of schemes encouraging parents to use modern cloth nappies.

At the forefront of the charge is Waitakere City Council which co-founded a trial to supply reusable cloth nappy packs for all new mothers at Waitakere Hospital, as well as using cloth nappies in its maternity ward.

The two month trial saw each organisation contribute $10,000. In addition the Council runs a nappy hire scheme that allows new parents to hire a kit of mixed styles of cloth nappies for a seven week period.

“Recent figures show that one child generates about two tonnes of landfill waste from disposable nappies over a three year period,” says Waitakere City Council Cleaner Production Officer Jennifer Aschenbrenner. “Waitakere has 3000 new babies born each year, so that’s 6000 tonnes of extra waste per year going into landfills.

“There is a lack of information about cloth nappies, so we wanted to break down those barriers and support parents in Waitakere by giving them a choice as to how their decisions affect their finances, the environment and their babies.”
North Shore City Council also runs a nappy hire scheme. It has five kits available for parents to hire for $8 a week to try out different cloth nappy styles. The scheme has proven so popular some soon-to-be parents are booking into the scheme four months in advance.
Hamilton City Council has provided $4000 in Envirofunds to the New Zealand Nappy Alliance (www.nzna.org.nz) to provide cloth nappy kits to local parents. In addition it runs eight two-hour workshops over a 12 month period educating parents about modern cloth nappy options.

Hamilton's Environmental Policy Advisor Tony Chandler says the cloth nappy scheme is a wonderful project in line with Council green objectives.
The Kawerau District Council is running ads in local papers trying to educate parents to stop using disposable nappies.

The Council is making discounted cloth nappies available to parents.
“So many people are surprised when they see what the new cloth nappies are like” says engineering officer Bernie Tientjes who supervises Zero Waste initiatives. “They now come in everything from tartan finishes to animal prints,” he laughs.

Jennifer Aschenbrenner from Waitakere City Council says environmental concerns about disposable nappies are summarized by the Zero Waste New Zealand Trust.
These include:
  • In a household with one baby, disposable nappies will make up 50% of total household waste. (Disposable nappies alone make up 6% of total waste in Wellington)
  • It takes as much energy to produce one throwaway nappy as it does to wash a cloth nappy 200 times
  • It takes 4.5 trees to make the pulp used in disposable nappies for one baby over 2.5 years (i.e. 1.3 million trees for New Zealand babies each year)
  • It takes one full cup of crude oil to make the plastic for each disposable nappy
  • Disposable nappies produce 60 times more solid waste than washable nappies
The New Zealand Nappy Alliance has been working closely with New Zealand Councils in rolling out nappy hire schemes.