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LEGO’s Commitment to ESG: Building a Sustainable Future

In an age where sustainability is no longer just an option but a necessity, companies worldwide are being called upon to integrate Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) principles into their operations. One company that stands out in its commitment to these values is LEGO. Renowned for its iconic building blocks, LEGO is also constructing a legacy of sustainability and ethical practices that other corporations can learn from. My family and I had the wonderful privilege of visiting LEGOLAND in Windsor during the opening weekend of the Woodland Village and we realized that not only do we love LEGO as a product buy by the end of the visit, we fell head over heels realizing their approach to design and running the amusement park serves an example to us all of what good corporate ESG can look like.

This post explores LEGO’s comprehensive ESG initiatives and highlights key takeaways for other businesses aiming to enhance their sustainability efforts.

Environmental Stewardship: Beyond the Bricks

Lego’s commitment to the environment is evident across multiple dimensions of its operations, from the materials it uses to the way it powers its facilities.

Sustainable Materials:

  • Bio-based Plastics: Lego is pioneering the use of bio-based plastics, derived from sugarcane, for its bricks. By 2030, the company aims to make all its core products from sustainable materials.
  • Recyclable Packaging:The company has pledged to make all packaging sustainable by 2025, focusing on recyclable and renewable materials to reduce plastic waste.

Energy Efficiency:e

  • Renewable Energy: Lego achieved its target of balancing 100% of its energy consumption with renewable energy sources by 2020, primarily through investments in offshore wind farms.
  • Energy-efficient Operations: The company continuously upgrades its factories to minimize energy consumption and reduce carbon emissions.

 

Waste Reduction:

  • Zero Waste to Landfill: Lego factories have adopted zero waste to landfill practices, recycling and reusing materials whenever possible.

Social Responsibility: Building Strong Communities

Lego’s commitment to social responsibility is reflected in its efforts to positively impact communities and support the development and well-being of children worldwide.

Education and Play:

  • Learning through Play: The Lego Foundation invests in research and initiatives that promote learning through play, supporting children’s development across the globe
  • Community Engagement: Lego actively engages with local communities, providing resources and support to enhance educational opportunities.

Employee Well-being:

  • Inclusive Work Environment: Lego promotes diversity and inclusion, ensuring a supportive and respectful workplace for all employees.
  • Employee Development: The company offers extensive training and development programs, fostering a culture of continuous learning and growth.

Health and Safety:

  • Safe Products: Ensuring the safety of its products is paramount for Lego. The company adheres to rigorous testing standards to guarantee that every Lego piece is safe for children.
  • Healthy Workspaces: Lego prioritizes the health and safety of its employees, implementing comprehensive safety protocols in its manufacturing plants and offices.

Governance Excellence: Leading with Integrity

Lego’s governance practices underscore its dedication to ethical conduct, transparency, and accountability.

Ethical Business Practices:

  • Code of Conduct: Lego’s robust code of conduct outlines expectations for ethical behavior, covering areas such as anti-corruption, human rights, and fair competition.
  • Supplier Standards: The company enforces strict ethical standards for its suppliers, ensuring responsible sourcing and fair labor practices.

Transparency and Accountability:

  • Sustainability Reporting: Lego publishes detailed sustainability reports, providing transparency about its ESG initiatives and progress.
  • Stakeholder Engagement: The company maintains open lines of communication with stakeholders, incorporating their feedback into its strategic decision-making processes.

Lessons for Other Corporations

Lego’s comprehensive approach to ESG offers valuable insights for other companies striving to enhance their sustainability practices:

  • Integrate Sustainability into Core Products: Innovate to create sustainable products that appeal to consumers and reduce environmental impact.
  • Invest in Renewable Energy: Achieve energy efficiency and reduce carbon footprints by investing in renewable energy sources.
  • Promote Inclusive Work Environments: Foster diversity and inclusion within the workforce to build a supportive and innovative organizational culture.
  • Ensure Ethical Supply Chains: Maintain high ethical standards throughout the supply chain, ensuring responsible sourcing and fair labor practices.
  • Engage Stakeholders: Actively engage with stakeholders and transparently report on sustainability initiatives to build trust and drive continuous improvement.

Conclusion

Lego’s ESG initiatives demonstrate that a commitment to sustainability and ethical practices can go hand-in-hand with business success. By prioritizing environmental stewardship, social responsibility, and governance excellence, Lego sets a benchmark for other corporations. Companies that follow Lego’s example will not only contribute to a healthier planet and society but also position themselves as leaders in the increasingly important realm of corporate sustainability.

For businesses looking to enhance their ESG practices, the message is clear: take inspiration from Lego and start building a more sustainable future today.

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Colorful and Conscious: Eco-Friendly Ways to Celebrate Holi

 

Ah, Holi – the festival of colors, joy, and unapologetic fun! But hold your horses, eco-warriors; before you dive headfirst into a pool of vibrant hues, let’s talk about how we can celebrate this Indian extravaganza with a touch of green. Get ready to sprinkle some eco-magic on your festivities!

1. DIY Delights:

Instead of rushing to buy pre-packaged holi powder (which often contains harmful chemicals and synthetic dyes), why not channel your inner Picasso and whip up your own? Raid your kitchen for turmeric, beetroot, or even spinach to create natural, biodegradable colors. It’s like playing chemist, but with a colorful twist! If you’re low on time, you can also just take any random flour, mix water and food colouring, let it dry and pulse back up in a blender and walah, eco friendly holi powder!

2. Say No to Plastic:

In the spirit of Mother Nature, bid adieu to plastic cutlery and plates. Opt for reusable or biodegradable alternatives. Picture this: scooping up delicious treats with eco-friendly utensils – that’s a win win for everyone. There are so many companies out there offering alternatives. If you’re in India, I highly recommend this company https://ecoware.in

3. Balloon Bananza:

Balloons may seem like innocent fun, but their environmental impact is nothing to scoff at. Skip the balloon barrage and opt for eco-friendly decorations like paper streamers or homemade banners. Trust me, your conscience will thank you later.

4. Water Wisdom:

Water scarcity is a real issue! Let’s honor our planet by conserving water during Holi. Instead of drenching each other with gallons of water, opt for a water-efficient celebration. A sprinkle here, a splash there – remember, less is more!

5. Channeling the Gods:

Ever wondered how the Hindu gods celebrated Holi? Legend has it that Lord Krishna, the mischievous deity, would playfully smear colors on his beloved Radha and other gopis (cowherd girls) using natural pigments from flowers and herbs. Taking a cue from the divine playbook, let’s keep it au naturel and eco-friendly!

6. Share the Joy:

Holi is all about spreading love and cheer. Instead of hoarding all the eco-friendly goodies for yourself, why not share your knowledge with friends and family? Host a DIY holi powder-making workshop or organize a green-themed Holi party. Together, we can make a colorful impact on the planet!

7. Clean-Up Crew:

The party doesn’t end when the colors fade away. Take a cue from Marie Kondo and tidy up your holi mess with gusto. Dispose of waste responsibly, recycle what you can, and leave your surroundings looking spick and span. Mother Earth will be smiling from ear to ear!

So there you have it, folks – a whimsical guide to celebrating Holi in style, all while keeping our planet in mind. Remember, every colorful step you take towards eco-friendly celebrations is a giant leap for our precious Earth. Let’s paint the town green (and pink, and blue) this Holi season!

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My time of the month just went “Perfectly Green”

Happy International Women’s Day!  I hope everyone has had a lovely weekend. In spirit of this national holiday, I thought I’d finally write a post about a decision I made 4 months ago that completely changed my life.  I started to use a reusable menstrual cup for that not-so-lovely time of month.  My blog is all about how imperfectly green, but I am proud to say this might be my greenest move yet.

You may be thinking, “ugh that’s gross” and “wouldn’t that be uncomfortable?” and “how does that work?!” All were thoughts running through my head before I gave this a try.

But first, let me start with some statistics – cause I love a good horror to prompt me into action:

  • In one’s lifetime, an average of 11,000 tampons or pads will be used to cover menstruation. That’s 22 in a month or 264 a year! Imagine multiplying that number for every woman on the planet!

*Image by OrganiCup

  • It’s not just the tampon or pad, how about the waste? Besides the cardboard box, the individual plastic packaging is rarely recyclable and it generates more than 200,000 tonnes of waste per year. Average user will throw away 125 to 150 kgs of tampons, pads and applicators away in their lifetime, YUCK! And you know where they end up….landfills, and even worse, oceans and beaches.  In 2010, a UK beach clean found an average of 23 sanitary pads and 9 tampon applicators per kilometre of British coastline.  In the US,  12 billion pads and 7 million tampons pollute landfills annually.
  • Tampons, pads and panty liners are mostly made up of plastic, about 90% to be precise.  A pad is equivalent to about 4 plastic bags.  Also, similarly  cited in my post about reusable vs disposable nappies; it takes a tremendous amount of time for tampons and pads to break down,  upwards of 500-800 years. Imagine it having a longer life span than you and several generations! Especially when it’s wrapped in plastic.
  • Manufacturing takes a toll on the environment too; turning wood into soft cotton like fibres is resource and chemical intensive. Disposable of menstrual products leaves a carbon footprint of 5.3 kg CO2 equivalents.  Not to mention,  products also contain dioxin, chlorine and rayon which get soaked by ground water and are released as pollution into the air.
  • Finally,  its an expensive time of the month.  A study by Plan International UK averaged that a period cost £500/year for the average woman. This amount includes not just the cost of the menstrual products but also accessories like pain relief and new clothing/toiletries, because it is not easy dealing with this!  If a woman uses 11,000 or more disposables in her lifetime, she will buy 20 tampons/pads at average £3-5 a box, you’re basically going to spend thousands on trash.

So between the environmental impact and cost savings, I knew I had to give this a try.

My mom introduced me to it over a decade ago, at the time it was more like a menstrual disk. She said that it changed her life and I wish I had listened back then. I don’t think there was a whole lot of talk about  at that time, nor the sheer number of options.

I started to Google around and there are several brands offering reusable products. I found reusable menstrual pads (ones which you wash) but I was pretty sure I didn’t want to go that route; not only do I hate pads with a passion, but that wouldn’t work for me on the go, and the laundry requirement would mean a lot of water/energy consumption. Instead, I went with the reusable menstrual cup by Intima.

Intima has several versions and types of cups. I went with the Intima Lily Cup One because it was marketed as the best one for beginners. It has an easy-pull tab, and it folds into this adorable little pink clam shell case.

I won’t lie to ya, it was a bit awkward getting in and out the first couple times, mainly because you have to fold the cup to the right shape so it goes it properly and then opens to create a “seal” that then collects fluid and prevents leaks.  I don’t want to go into much detail but I did have a mishap the first 2 days I used it cause I didn’t quite get it right. But once I did, it was absolutely perfect. It’s made of soft silicone and very comfortable going in. You don’t feel a thing (just as you wouldn’t with a tampon when inserted properly). My favourite part is that it lasts for up to 12 hours, so if you’re a medium-flow person like me, you wont have to worry about it for most of the day.

So what if you have to change it? This is the awkward part but I don’t mind it anymore.  I can put it on in the morning, not have to deal with it until I come home. But if its a particularly heavy day, you might want to take it out, dump, wash and reinsert. The only way you can do this especially if you’re out and about is to go to a family or disabled bathroom so you can use the sink in privacy.  This is what I do but it’s rarely a need since the cup covers me for 99% of the time.  There are a few models I’ve seen which now have a “release valve” at the tip/end to dispose of menstrual fluid  without needing to pull out the cup entirely. I think I might have to give that a go next, but so far so good.  I am so glad to never again have to uncomfortably sneak of tampons to the bathroom at work, or deal with gross dangling strings and cold applicators.

So if you’re imperfectly green woman with a period and want something easy to reduce your carbon footprint now, this is seriously an amazing place to start.

Below are a few brands that I’ve read of that you can give a try. As I mentioned above, I’m not quite into the reusable pad option due to the laundry/water/energy requirement, but they are still a far better option than disposables.

  • Intima Cups – the brand I went with to start, has a great variety and very reliable
  • Tulip Cup – the one that has a “drain” or “release” valve
  • Glad Rags – has both reusable cups and pads, and great for educational resources
  • Flex – this is the one for you if you want to have sex while on your period
  • Diva Cups – the one that seems to be the most popular one on YouTube. Recommended for people with vaginas who haven’t given birth vaginally
  • Lunapads – the one all the girls seem to say is the most absorbent and leakproof if you want to go with pads.
  • Earthwise Girls – same as above but UK version
  • Greenlife – this brand makes a cup that’s made of a Fair Trade natural rubber.
  • ImseVimse – a Swedish brand that makes a lot of reusable products
  • OrganiCup – a great brand  made of soft, organic materials.
  • Monki x Lunette – a great brand if you want to support a company on a mission to help women around the world.
  • Eva Cup – this one is cool because it comes with an extra set and a water-based sanitising spray to keep you clean.

Above is definitely not an exhaustive list, but give them a go!  I wish I had known about these brands before I bought my cup and wrote this blog.  There are quite a few cute ones here I would have liked to try. However, in the interest of minimalism, reducing my spending and overall waste, as the expression goes, if it “ain’t broke, don’t fix it.” I love my cup and I’m a user for life (or as long as my cup lasts me)!

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An Imperfectly Green experience in baby feeding

This post is about something which weighs very heavily in my heart. A topic that plagued the early months of first experience as a mother and I don’t think is talked enough about. It’s about bottle feeding and the physical, emotional and societal pressure that comes with it. You may be wondering, what does this have to do with the theme of this blog? If you’re a new parent, every single thing you do from now on will need to be prefaced with a thought concerning your baby’s welfare. Will that concern always align with your mission to be green? The short of it is, not always. I wanted do parenthood the “green” way from the beginning – natural pregnancy, birth and through to natural feeding, but my experience was everything but. This is one of many spheres of life which I am most imperfectly green.

Before you continue reading, let me make clear that I am not advocating for or against breast feeding, bottle feeding, formula or combo. This is purely a piece about my own experience, and some helpful words of support which were shared with me.

A summary of my birthing experience: After 32 hours of labor, I unfortunately was robbed of the opportunity of a natural birth and had an emergency c-section. I was gutted because I had envisioned going on an all natural route. Too bad, this is how the universe intended it, and it’s times like this I am grateful for modern medicine for saving both my life and my child. My husband and I are overwhelmed with love for our little boy.

Due to the emergency c-section, my milk did not come until about 2 weeks. I did everything I could to increase my milk supply: hired a double pump, ate oats and paak (an Indian treat packed full of nuts, dates and other ingredients to help moms), drank beer, took fenugreek pills and even worked with a lactation consultant.

Once my milk finally came in, it wasn’t enough. I was making about 15 oz (426 ml) a day at best, and this is by pumping every 2-3 hours. I was dogged about it. By this point, my son was used to the bottle and would not latch. He would scream bloody murder every time I brought him to my breast and we would both cry when we couldn’t make it happen. For men, as well as women exclusively breastfeed, you simply do not understand how saddening and painful this feeling is. It’s like, we had known how to communicate with each other for months while in the womb, and suddenly in the most tender of moments, we just could not understand and give each other what we needed. Mother nature didn’t care about supply/demand. At that point, I had to come to terms that he would be bottle fed.

For the first 3 months of his life, we combination fed him (alternating formula and breast milk from a bottle) and then dropped off to formula only once he started to increase his intake and I couldn’t keep up. I had been filled with guilt and it certainly contributed to my postpartum depression. It didn’t help that other mothers judged me, as well as NHS midwives and staff. One NHS clinic staff had the gall to tell me, “You should really be breastfeeding, you know its best. Besides, it’s free!”

Please don’t patronise me, you think I don’t know its “free?” Sure it’s free if you’re endowed with milk-producing breasts. However, if you give any value to my time and consider motherhood a true job, then saying it’s free implies I am no better than an indentured servant making no income. My time has a whopping value of 0. I should add that breastfeeding is not completely free, it also comes with its share of accessories and supplies – nipple shields and balms, breast pumps, storage bags, speciality supplements, and more. This same person also made a hard sell on breastfeeding for such stereo-typically girly reasons (she assumed again I chose formula over breast milk), such as “you will burn 500 extra calories a day, so you’ll lose weight faster and it reduces risk for breast and cervical cancer.” Well gee, do people think I don’t want those things? 

As most mothers do, I blew past the unsolicited comments and went on my way. I looked online for resources on how to handle the formula feeding transition both physically and emotionally. I came across this tweet and shared on Facebook. It made me chuckle and gave me a sense of comfort. To my great surprise, I was attacked almost instantly. 

https://twitter.com/carolinehirons/status/1025871911992082432?lang=en

I thought I was safe among friends, but it was the acquaintances I knew less that had such strong opinions. I was accused of spreading misinformation, not caring about my child’s health, being no better than Trump with my fake news and that it was irresponsible and it wasn’t even my content! Below is a snippet of a very long exchange, which I should not have participated in. He will not be named, but it’s just to prove I can’t make this up!

People missed the point entirely; she is not saying that breastfeeding doesn’t matter in its entirety. She is saying that in long term outcome of food preferences, it will not matter. 

Why do people have such intense opinions over decisions that do not apply to them? Or more importantly, need to make those opinions known when it does not affect their lives directly in any form? The female body is politicised enough, but it just gets worse with motherhood. This person, along with several others have no clue how much they hurt me over something they probably will never think about again. 

In my journey, breastfeeding wasn’t easy, but neither was bottle feeding. It’s complicated, there are many types of formulas and a lot of supplies you need to make it happen. Regardless of reason, formula feeding is perceived as an inferior path, as a lack of dedication to one’s baby. It is not the “easy way out” or indicative that you gave up. In fact, it demonstrates the latter, it’s that you’re trying to keep your baby healthy and happy. Formula feeding is also absurdly expensive. The average box is between £8-14, and if you blow through a box a week, that at least  £730 a year and that is not including equipment such as bottles, teats, prep machines, sterlisers, pre-made formula for on-the-go and other supplies). It creates so much trash, the environmentalist in me cringes every time. Also, it is a royal pain the a$& to travel anywhere with a baby on formula; doesn’t matter if its short distances or far, you always have to make sure you’ve packed all the supplies and right amounts for the duration of your journey. I would love to just be the walking food source! If formula is a part of your bottle feeding experience, it’s not like you’re choosing to “support big corporate” (yes, someone has said that to me too). Each family has to make difficult choices, and this is not one that is easily made or swayed by branding, misinformation, corporate interests or popular mommy trends. I don’t have empirical data to substantiate this claim but from my informal conversations with other parent groups, it seems more often than not, the choice to formula feed part or full time is a matter of need, rather than an either/or choice over breast-milk. 

I am a mother to a healthy growing boy and finally no longer feel ashamed. However, it took me a very long time to get here. I wanted to share with you some of the wonderful things my family and friends have said to help me get through this time. I hope that it will help you too:

  • You may not be feeding your baby in the most eco-friendly way, but you tried your hardest, and you are more than making up by living greener in other ways – eco-friendly nappies, purchasing gently used/recycled/plastic free toys, and more. You will always find new opportunities to be greener with your child, just wait until weaning!
  • Your son is not going to grow up saying to you, “what the hell, you didn’t breastfeed me!? You’re a terrible mother.” Believe me, you’re bound to do something else to mess him up and make him angry at you. Breast feeding is not going to be that. :-p
  • Your son will still get sick. This is the natural order of life. We are built with different immunities. This isn’t some magical sauce that will prevent common illnesses and disease in its entirety.
  • Formula or breastfeeding, your child will still likely suffer common problems with feeding; fussiness, colic, constipation, wind and more.
  • If you’re bottle feeding, it’s likely the activity then is shared between mom, dad and other family members. This will help your child associate feeding as a non-gender specific activity. This is important in a world where we are still fighting for gender equality at home and in the work place.
  • If you’re worried about bonding, there is a lot more you’ll be doing than just feeding to accomplish that. Cuddles, skin to skin, talking, contact, time and love are the things that your little one needs.

As Assistant Professor Cynthia Colen stated in a study, “I’m not saying breast-feeding is not beneficial, especially for boosting nutrition and immunity in newborns…But if we really want to improve maternal and child health in this country, let’s also focus on things that can really do that in the long term – like subsidised day care, better maternity leave policies and more employment opportunities for low-income mothers that pay a living wage, for example.”

So here I am 7 months later, I no longer have the guilt but I still think a lot about this. After all, nature designed our bodies to do it and breastfeeding is truly the least wasteful method of caring for your baby from an environmental perspective. No plastic bottles, no silicone teats, no formula powder containers and scoops. But sometimes nature doesn’t work, and never was a time like now that I am grateful for modern medicine and availability of formula. It’s what enabled my baby and I to survive and live this great life. This is yet another example where I am imperfectly green. I absolutely hate that I have to constantly buy formula, which comes in only partly-recyclable packaging, and I have lots of plastic supplies to go with it. But my commitment to living greener is that I will do everything I can to recycle and reuse to extend the life of these items, and advocate to the companies who sell formula to better design their packaging to minimise waste. 

If you’re a mother who has struggled to make and live with this choice or “choice,” here are some helpful resources.

Resources: Facebook Bottle Feeders’ Support Group; Fearless Formula Feeder , Buy Guilt-Free Bottle-Feeding
Books: Bottled Up How the Way We Feed Babies Has Come to Define Motherhood, and Why It Shouldn’t 

 

 

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To Reuse or Dispose – a Debate about Nappies (or Diapers)

Nappies to my British friends, Diapers to my American friends. Whatever you call them, this is a big conundrum for those trying to be green.

While I was pregnant, I was inundated with horrifying statistics about the environmental impact of babies. Just in the UK alone, 2.5 billion nappies are thrown away (that’s 7 million a day, or 6,000 per child). That is 2.4% of all household waste. The average baby uses about 4,000 disposable nappies by the time they are potty trained. This is equivalent to half a tonne of carbon dioxide.

If you look at the issue from a waste perspective, the clear choice is to go with reusable nappies. Reusables mean less waste sent to a landfill. It seemed so obvious, all the benefits were there and manufacturers have made them quite easy to use. Even though use of energy involved in cleaning reusable nappies is significant, it could be reduced by air-drying, and still lower than use of fossil fuels needed to produce disposables to begin with. After some initial research (and a LOT of opinions thrown at me), I decided I wanted to go the reusable route.

Fast forward to the day baby was born. It was pure chaos. As a single parental unit living in the city with no extra support, there was no way I could keep up with the laundry requirement. I was absolutely exhausted the first month; My son was feeding every 2-3 hours and somewhere in between I had to sleep, pump, shower, and do other basic things. I just could not afford the time to do the extra laundry. Additionally, in a small apartment, the dirty nappies left a weird “hamster cage” like smell in the bin and my germophobic nature kicked in hard at the mere scent of it. It made me wish I had a bigger home to line dry the nappies. Additionally, my washer/dryer unit is not as big or powerful as the ones I am used to in the US, and it just ended up not being practical for me. Also, I found poop disposal tricky. I had a disposable liner in my nappy, which is supposed to capture poop before it goes through to the nappy. It rarely worked that way for my son, and so I’d always have this fumbling experience of catching the poop, wiping up excess around the nappy and on him, then needing to rush to the toilet to discard, and then put a fresh nappy on him. Heaven help you if your child is sick and he/she has explosive diarrhoea (it is a serious nightmare to clean and those stains don’t leave the nappy unless you can line dry in the sun)! There are YouTube videos that make this look quite easy, but it took me awhile to get it right. All this aside, I didn’t want to give up so I kept going with it, and admittedly it got much easier once he started weaning and had more solid poos. 

You may be wondering why didn’t I go with the eco-waste delivery method. If this is the first you’re hearing of it, it’s basically the Amazon Prime of cloth diapering – you get the benefits of using cloth and have a delivery company come pick up your dirty nappies and leave fresh nappies for you. This is a great option and probably preferred – but unfortunately the options available to me were not in my budget.

Since then, I’ve also given eco-disposable/biodegradable nappies a go, but this is an area to tread carefully as well. I felt like I was caving in to the world of disposables, but if I was going to do it, I would want to do it the greener way. There are a lot of brands out there, all of which boast being better for the environment. I’ve tried 5 different brands between the US and UK and on the whole, the following are my observations:

  • They are surprisingly absorbent; I changed my son fewer times than I did with normal disposable nappy and a reusable nappy.
  • They seem to prevent nappy rashes. My son never got one (fingers crossed) and several others who have shared their feedback said that they seem to do a much better job
  • Cost wise, they will run you a bit more than a regular disposable nappy, but for the above benefits, it could end up being a saving

Notice I have not mentioned anything about actual biodegradability. Turns out, they don’t differ all that much from regular disposable nappies. It’s not because of the material, but because of how we discard them.

Biodegradablity is meaningless when 90% of nappies (in the UK) end up in landfills. Landfills are anaerobic (there is no light or air), which is necessary for the decomposition process. The nappies will break down, but very slowly just as regular disposables. What this means is that any nappy that is biodegradable can only break down if its properly composted.  Bear in mind, we don’t mean regular old home composting method either! Laws covering landfill sites are aimed at reducing the amount of biodegradable waste in them but it is not always easy to filter the trash, especially when items co-mingle; the greenhouse gases released from the rotting waste is difficult to capture.

Eco-disposables get their name because they are produced according to environmentally-friendly production methods, or that it is chemically friendly to babies. However, it does not make comment on how it affects landfills. There are some eco-disposable brands that have specialist nappy recycling/incinerating services but of course those only exist in more environmentally-progressive countries such as the Netherlands or Sweden.

To flip this essay back to reusables for a moment, I started to dig more deeply into how they are produced and maintained. Most cloth nappies are made of cotton, which is an extremely thirsty crop and requires regular dousing of pesticides, making it very expensive and harsh on the environment. There is also a social dimension to include – cotton fertilisers are greenhouse gas emitters and the trucking of cotton to farms to industrial gins and weavers generates emissions, which is further compounded by the production process. There is also the persistent history of human exploitation, in countries like Uzbekistan, India, China and others where cotton has been linked to forced labour and human trafficking. There is virtually no transparency in the manufacturing chain for reusable or disposable nappies. 

Needless to say, I was feeling pretty defeated; there is no true easy and environmentally-friendly alternative or at least not an obvious one from a new mommy and consumer’s point of view.

So after all that, you may be wondering what I chose to do in the end of the day? The first was, I had to stop and accept that right now, there is no perfect solution. Secondly, I found a hybrid approach – a combination of reusable and disposable nappies worked best for me physically, emotionally and financially.

I use disposables (of the eco/biodegradable kind) majority of the time, especially when I am on-the-go, travelling, and for evening changes. I don’t use these for the biodegradability feature, but because they fit my need for convenience, ease, and are produced in an environmentally-friendly way (see Nordic Swan Eco label). However, to save on costs in the long term, and to reduce the amount I discard, I use reusable Bambino Mio Solos during the day when I am at home. I need to do laundry fairly regularly but I am okay with this, especially on days where I stay in town. What is also nice about the Bambino Mio Solo set is they are AIOs (all-in-one) nappies that grow with your baby, so I don’t need to worry about having the right size. I’ve also read from other users that it is a great way to encourage your baby to potty train as they get used to feeling wet or uncomfortable and associate a visit to the restroom with clean and comfort. Let’s hope that happens. This combo approach helps me address two of my concerns; waste (addressed by reusables) and climate change (addressed by disposables). A combo approach is a great way to reduce your carbon footprint.

At the end, I wanted to spend more time with my son, and not get caught up in laundry all the time. Disposables are a convenience of modern day life that our ancestors did not have, and many of us living in the city or by ourselves don’t have the village to help us raise our kids, which is often why we opt for the convenience. I think if I had my village, I would probably be using reusables majority of the time. 

Do not feel eco-guilt when pragmatism is needed. Parenting is so hard; it is stressful and you’re tired all the time. But you don’t have to abandon attempts to be green if you use disposables once in awhile, in fact, I’ve learned this is precisely what a lot of reusable nappy users do.

If you’re a new parent trying to do the right thing for the planet, here is what you ought to keep your eyes peeled for:

  • Check if your local council offers incentives such as trial packs, laundry services or cash back on reusable nappy kits
  • Consider using recycled paper in their products
  • Use renewable energy for the production process
  • Utilisation of sustainable sources of pulp from managed forests, or other renewable materials
  • Investigate technology for recycling/incineration of disposable nappies
  • Lower the weight of their products
  • Review worker welfare and benefits provided by the company from whom you’re buying and request information about supply chain

In Conclusion

Whichever way you go, it is helpful to make a list of your priorities. In the long run, if cost is your biggest concern, then reusables are the way to go. It’s much cheaper than disposables, even when taking into account cost of electricity/water when washing them. If you want to know the true cost between the two, a simple Google search will tell you. When doing so, be a bit more earth friendly by waiting to have fuller laundry loads and air-dry your nappies. If cost is no issue, go with an eco-waste service so you get the best of both worlds; a company expert in waste disposal and reusable nappies! However, look into the carbon footprint of the pickups/drop offs (is the company using fuel efficient cars?) If you go for disposables, it’s worth doing some math on cost per and your options for disposal. Also research the manufacturer and their policy on sustainable forestry and promoting composting systems. If one day we had systems in place to collect biogas from disposables, there would be a clear winner over reusables in eco-impact. There are a lot of factors that affect the environmental impact of a product, and biodegradability is just one of them.  When you are trying to reduce your eco footprint, it is important to look at the entire life cycle of the product you choose, rather than a single factor.  

Here’s a summary of my findings between the two “earth-friendly” nappy options. Hope this helps you make the choice right for the planet and your family!

Feature Image (Disposables v Cloth Diapers) Credit