7 August 2012
News Release
ARE YOU A WASTE FREE PARENT?
Modern cloth nappies are really taking off, and Kate Meads, the Nappy Lady, is taking her knowledge about cloth nappies and sustainable living to parents in 14 New Zealand towns during the next six months.
"Teaching parents about their options for minimising their impact on the environment is my passion, and councils and other organisations are really getting on board to support waste-free parenting as viable and achievable," Kate explains.
In conjunction with various councils and with the support of many local cloth nappy companies, Kate is running informative workshops on waste-free parenting and modern cloth nappies in Auckland, Hamilton, Tauranga, Rotorua, Kawerau, Hastings, Palmerston North, New Plymouth, Hawera, Hutt City, Wellington, Dunedin, and Oamaru, and is set for a busy few months in the lead-up to summer.
"
More and more councils around NZ are starting to look seriously at minimising the amount of waste they are accepting into their landfills," Kate says. "Waste-free parenting is about not only minimising your family's eco footprint, it's also about teaching parents about sustainable and environmentally conscious options. Cloth nappies are one important component of this, but I also help parents to integrate other waste-minimising activities into their home life, such as composting and recycling."
At The Nappy Lady workshops, parents and parents-to-be not only learn about the different styles of cloth nappies, they'll also receive tips and information on what they can do at home to reduce their waste output. What's more, attendees of the workshops receive a free cloth nappy trial pack to take home, giving them an opportunity to put into action the information they learn.
"There is massive interest in the workshops, and many are sold out weeks in advance," Kate says. "Parents are hungry for this information and we're adding more and more workshops to keep up with the demand. It's great to see the initiative spreading nationwide, and the positive impact waste-free parenting and cloth nappies are having on Kiwi parents."
Kate’s personal goal is to get every family in NZ with children in nappies to use just 1 cloth nappy per day which would prevent 1 million nappies from going into our local landfills every week.
All of the upcoming workshops are listed on The Nappy Lady’s website http://www.thenappylady.co.nz/workshops.asp
-ends-
For interviews, comments or more information, please contact, Kate Meads, The Nappy Lady on (07) 549 2955 or 027 22 11 242 or via email thenappylady@me.com
A full list of workshop dates are included on the following page
Upcoming workshops:
• AUCKLAND Saturday 18 August, 10:30am to 12pm
Saturday 25 August, 1:00pm to 2:30pm
Monday 17th September, 10am to 11:30am
Tuesday 18th September, 6pm to 7:30pm
• HAMILTON Friday 5th October – 6pm – 8pm
• ROTORUA Thursday 9 August - 6:30pm to 8:30pm
• TAURANGA Saturday 11th August - 10am to 12 noon
Monday 19th November – 6:30pm – 8:30pm
• HASTINGS Friday 24 August - 6:00pm to 8:00pm
• NEW PLYMOUTH Thursday 6 September - 10:30am to 12:30pm
• HAWERA Saturday 7 September - 10am to 12 noon
• FEILDING Thursday 16th August – 6:30pm – 8:30pm
• PALMERSTON NORTH Saturday 18 August - 10am to 12 noon
Wednesday 7th November 6:30pm – 8:30pm
• DUNEDIN Saturday 29th September – 11:30am – 1:30pm
There are other nappy schemes that are in other areas that do not run a workshop.
Check the website (http://www.thenappylady.co.nz/workshops.asp) for more information and to book into any of the upcoming workshops.
Showing posts with label cloth nappy. Show all posts
Showing posts with label cloth nappy. Show all posts
Tuesday, August 7, 2012
Monday, July 9, 2012
Hawera Nappy Workshop - Limited Spaces
Nappy Lady Waste Free Parenting Workshops.
Taken by: The Nappy Lady - Kate Meads.
Want a Free Cloth Nappy Trial Pack?
The Nappy Lady is coming to Hawera!
Come along to one of the Nappy Lady workshops and learn all about your nappy options and how you can save lots of money.
The best news... you will get to take home a cloth nappy trial pack for free from the Nappy Lady and her generous sponsors.
At the Nappy workshop The Nappy Lady will:
- Show you the modern nappy options
- Explain how all of the different styles of nappies work
- Help you choose the best nappy for your baby and budget
- Give you helpful ways you can be more sustainable at home
Cost: $20.00 per couple or parent attending on their own
LIMITED SPACES: To Book you can purchase tickets using the link below:
Sunday, July 8, 2012
The original Nappy Lady - waste free parenting workshops.
Taken by: The Nappy Lady - Kate Meads.
Want Free Nappies? Come along to one of the Nappy Lady
workshops and learn all about your nappy options and how you can save lots of money.
The best news... you will get to take home a $60 pack of cloth nappies for free from the Nappy Lady and The Palmerston North Council.
At the Nappy workshop The Nappy Lady will:
- Show you the modern nappy options
- Explain how all of the different styles of nappies work
- Help you choose the best nappy for your baby and budget
Cost: $20.00 per couple or parent attending on their own.
To Book:
Email 'The Nappy Lady' thenappylady@me.com or call (027) 22 11 242 for more information.
You are welcome to bring along your babies if they are breast feeding to the workshop and your partner, or perhaps your mum.
Event held in the The Sound and Vision Zone.
Saturday, July 7, 2012
Tuesday, July 3, 2012
Friday, July 23, 2010
Dyed disposables vs waste minimization
Having seen the articles and adds for these new fashionable fully dyed nappies one would have to wonder how this is supporting their determination to make their products more Eco friendly. Does this not go completley against disposables becoming less of an environmental hazard?
Here the companys are telling us that they are making them smaller and making them out of more enviomentally friendly materials. But now they have gone and dyed them all to make a one use throwaway nappy look nicer on a baby for around 4 hours.
The only good thing is that they will look pretty with poo in them in the landfill!
Here the companys are telling us that they are making them smaller and making them out of more enviomentally friendly materials. But now they have gone and dyed them all to make a one use throwaway nappy look nicer on a baby for around 4 hours.
The only good thing is that they will look pretty with poo in them in the landfill!
Thursday, September 24, 2009
Washing Reusable Nappies is As Simple As 1 2 3
I have many parents who ask what the best way to wash their reusable cloth nappies is. Generally parents get their own routine after a time but to start with they may be nervous about using cloth diapers. So I decided to break down washing into a simple to understand step by step guide which will hopefully answer your questions. If you have other questions that are not covered in this, it pays to contact the manufacturer of your product.
Step one: Removing the nappy
Firstly you must take the soiled nappy off your baby. Use an old ice cream container in which you can place any soiled diapers and used wipes in while you pop the clean nappy onto your baby.
Solids in the nappy? Then you must dispose of all solids in the toilet (this is the case if you are using a disposable nappy as well) If you are using flushable liners, carefully remove the liner from the inside of the nappy and flush the liner down the toilet. If you are using reusable liners, take the nappy and the liner into the toilet and hold the re-usable liner in the toilet and flush the toilet onto it to remove any solids that are on it. Then wrap the liner up in the nappy ready for washing together.
Step 2: Dry Pail your nappies
Now days we do not have to soak our reusable nappies because the detergents and machines now do the work that our soakers used to do. If parents do soak their nappies they may wear the elastics and fabrics out earlier than expected because some of the soakers can be quite harsh on some modern fabrics. This is why we suggest using a dry pail which is simply a dry bucket with no water or soakers in it. This is also much safer for baby (no buckets of water around) and will save you from lifting heavy buckets into the washing machine.
Step 3: Wash the nappies
When you have a load of used reusable nappies or perhaps less but are ready to wash them, tip the contents of your bucket into the washing machine. To minimise the amount of washing, save more money and to lower the reusable diapers eco footprint, some parents will put them through a rinse cycle first and then add all of their babies other clothes into the same cycle. Some washing machines even have a special cycle just for nappies.
When you wash your nappies you only need to use a fraction of the amount of liquid / powder you would normally use to wash your clothes. We suggest around 1 - 2 tablespoons. Pop this in your machine as per your manufacturer's instructions. Turn the machine on and.....walk away....the machine does all of the nasty work for you while you have time to spend with your baby and family. Step 4: Drying your nappies
Once your machine has completed the task of washing your nappies (wow that was easy), it is time to dry them.
You can pop them on the line to dry with the rest of your washing and then walk away and let the sun dry, bleach and sanitize them while you spend time with your family. Or if you are short of time, you can tumble dry the diapers on a cool setting but we do recommend line drying wherever possible. Line drying saves you money and reduces the eco footprint of a reusable nappy.
Step 5: Folding your nappies
This is the best part, you take your diapers off the line or out of the drier and you pop them in your chosen storage place near where you change your baby they are all ready to go - NO FOLDING involved leaving you time to do many other things or sit and enjoy the evening on the couch!
Step 6: It is so easy!
It may have all sounded a bit ominous when you first start researching using reusable cloth nappies, but when you consider that:
- you do not have to use all of the nasty chemicals you may have thought you would have to use
- the nappies are likely to be far simpler to care for than you were led to believe
- Plus you will save thousands of dollars over a 2 - 3 year period so you would be crazy not to give it a go!
Step one: Removing the nappy
Firstly you must take the soiled nappy off your baby. Use an old ice cream container in which you can place any soiled diapers and used wipes in while you pop the clean nappy onto your baby.
Solids in the nappy? Then you must dispose of all solids in the toilet (this is the case if you are using a disposable nappy as well) If you are using flushable liners, carefully remove the liner from the inside of the nappy and flush the liner down the toilet. If you are using reusable liners, take the nappy and the liner into the toilet and hold the re-usable liner in the toilet and flush the toilet onto it to remove any solids that are on it. Then wrap the liner up in the nappy ready for washing together.
Step 2: Dry Pail your nappies
Now days we do not have to soak our reusable nappies because the detergents and machines now do the work that our soakers used to do. If parents do soak their nappies they may wear the elastics and fabrics out earlier than expected because some of the soakers can be quite harsh on some modern fabrics. This is why we suggest using a dry pail which is simply a dry bucket with no water or soakers in it. This is also much safer for baby (no buckets of water around) and will save you from lifting heavy buckets into the washing machine.
Step 3: Wash the nappies
When you have a load of used reusable nappies or perhaps less but are ready to wash them, tip the contents of your bucket into the washing machine. To minimise the amount of washing, save more money and to lower the reusable diapers eco footprint, some parents will put them through a rinse cycle first and then add all of their babies other clothes into the same cycle. Some washing machines even have a special cycle just for nappies.
When you wash your nappies you only need to use a fraction of the amount of liquid / powder you would normally use to wash your clothes. We suggest around 1 - 2 tablespoons. Pop this in your machine as per your manufacturer's instructions. Turn the machine on and.....walk away....the machine does all of the nasty work for you while you have time to spend with your baby and family. Step 4: Drying your nappies
Once your machine has completed the task of washing your nappies (wow that was easy), it is time to dry them.
You can pop them on the line to dry with the rest of your washing and then walk away and let the sun dry, bleach and sanitize them while you spend time with your family. Or if you are short of time, you can tumble dry the diapers on a cool setting but we do recommend line drying wherever possible. Line drying saves you money and reduces the eco footprint of a reusable nappy.
Step 5: Folding your nappies
This is the best part, you take your diapers off the line or out of the drier and you pop them in your chosen storage place near where you change your baby they are all ready to go - NO FOLDING involved leaving you time to do many other things or sit and enjoy the evening on the couch!
Step 6: It is so easy!
It may have all sounded a bit ominous when you first start researching using reusable cloth nappies, but when you consider that:
- you do not have to use all of the nasty chemicals you may have thought you would have to use
- the nappies are likely to be far simpler to care for than you were led to believe
- Plus you will save thousands of dollars over a 2 - 3 year period so you would be crazy not to give it a go!
Tuesday, August 18, 2009
Does Using a Disposable Nappy Really Save More Time Than Using a Cloth Nappy?
Did you know that some disposable nappy companies suggest that just because parents using cloth nappies have to wash, dry and fold their nappies, that this may use up quality time which many parents may prefer to save for their families?
I have to say, what is really so hard about putting nappies in the washing machine and turning it on? We all wash our own underwear so what is the difference? And it is not like parents using cloth diapers stand at the line waiting for them to dry and even better, most cloth nappies today require no folding.
With small babies, we all use our washing machines daily! The hardest thing sometimes is to get into a routine - many people simply alternate clothes washes with nappy washes and some people just throw it all in together!
Also when using disposables I certainly found myself doing far more washing than I expected because they continually leaked through my newborns clothing and bedding, essentially creating more washing.
Modern reusable diapers are shaped to fit just like disposables. Sometimes the wrap is separate from the cloth nappy but most parents dress their baby in a number of items of clothing every day, so one extra item of clothing makes very little difference.
Another common complaint is 'having to handle the poo when you use cloth'. By using flushable liners in re-usable nappies, we don't have to deal with any of the nasty stuff, you simply just flush it away!
I am amazed at the number of parents I have spoken to, who have not read the small print on disposables where it quite clearly states that any solids should be disposed of down the toilet. It appears that most parents just wrap up the nappy, poo and all, and dispose of it into the bin to go into our landfills - just because it is a disposable nappy.
This means there could well be tonnes of untreated human waste sitting in our landfills.
With our economy the way it is and with the price of disposable nappies increasing, disposables may actually cost your family more time than you think. Consider how many extra hours a parent may need to work each week just to pay for the $50 worth of disposable nappies their baby is likely to use per week.
The amount of time one parent would have to work just to earn enough to purchase their disposable nappies would far outweigh the amount of time it would take for mum to turn on the washing machine 3-4 times a week and to hang out 4 loads of washing.
Modern cloth nappies have become easy, low cost, eco friendly alternatives to disposables and will not cost a family any more time than what their daily washing routine already does.
I have to say, what is really so hard about putting nappies in the washing machine and turning it on? We all wash our own underwear so what is the difference? And it is not like parents using cloth diapers stand at the line waiting for them to dry and even better, most cloth nappies today require no folding.
With small babies, we all use our washing machines daily! The hardest thing sometimes is to get into a routine - many people simply alternate clothes washes with nappy washes and some people just throw it all in together!
Also when using disposables I certainly found myself doing far more washing than I expected because they continually leaked through my newborns clothing and bedding, essentially creating more washing.
Modern reusable diapers are shaped to fit just like disposables. Sometimes the wrap is separate from the cloth nappy but most parents dress their baby in a number of items of clothing every day, so one extra item of clothing makes very little difference.
Another common complaint is 'having to handle the poo when you use cloth'. By using flushable liners in re-usable nappies, we don't have to deal with any of the nasty stuff, you simply just flush it away!
I am amazed at the number of parents I have spoken to, who have not read the small print on disposables where it quite clearly states that any solids should be disposed of down the toilet. It appears that most parents just wrap up the nappy, poo and all, and dispose of it into the bin to go into our landfills - just because it is a disposable nappy.
This means there could well be tonnes of untreated human waste sitting in our landfills.
With our economy the way it is and with the price of disposable nappies increasing, disposables may actually cost your family more time than you think. Consider how many extra hours a parent may need to work each week just to pay for the $50 worth of disposable nappies their baby is likely to use per week.
The amount of time one parent would have to work just to earn enough to purchase their disposable nappies would far outweigh the amount of time it would take for mum to turn on the washing machine 3-4 times a week and to hang out 4 loads of washing.
Modern cloth nappies have become easy, low cost, eco friendly alternatives to disposables and will not cost a family any more time than what their daily washing routine already does.
Tuesday, January 20, 2009
Can parents afford not to use cloth nappies?
As the world’s recession becomes a reality, redundancy rates rise and many young families are struggling to get by on one income, a growing number of parents are now making the smart switch to modern cloth nappies.
Many parents are discovering that they can save up to $50 per week on their grocery bill which can come to an astonishing $6300* over 3 – 3.5 years.
Generally when couples have their first child they drop from two incomes to one so their weekly income is literally cut in half.
These now single income families are providing for a new baby who will cost a small fortune in their first few years of life.
“The main issue that puts parents off using cloth nappies is the initial investment because it can be anything between $500 and $1500 depending on the chosen brand,” says Kate Meads, cloth nappy expert and spokesperson for the New Zealand Nappy Alliance (www.nzna.org.nz)
“However if you had to go and purchase all of your disposable nappies up front, you just wouldn’t buy them because who could afford to spend such a huge amount of money up front on a product you will only use once”–
“We suggest parents purchase their reusable nappies while they are still pregnant and pay them off while they make the most of still having two incomes to draw on,” Says Kate Meads who is also director of Nappy Days Limited (www.nappydays.co.nz)
“These parents can then be happy in the knowledge that they won’t have an additional expense buying disposable nappies each time they go to the supermarket.”
“With a little bit of education, parents are discovering that using Modern cloth nappies take no longer to use than disposables and they are finding out first hand how much these wonder nappies are saving them on a weekly basis.”
Kate also knows many parents become overwhelmed when researching their nappy options because of the amount of information available online.
This resulted in her writing a book titled ‘Modern Cloth Nappies’
“I wrote ‘Modern Cloth Nappies’ to help parents decide which type of nappy would most suit their lifestyle and to dispel the many myths surrounding cloth nappies today” Says Kate
Kate has provided her book to Waitakere City Council who is jointly publishing it so they can use it as a resource in the Waitakere City area.
"This book is clear and informative for anyone who is starting out with cloth nappies. The book covers all the various types of cloth nappies available on the market while being an easy read - a great resource for cloth nappy users." Says Jennifer Aschenbrenner, cleaner production officer, Waitakere City Council
“I am hopeful my book will be used and supported in future by other councils and that it will make choosing and using washable nappies far easier for parents, potentially saving them thousands,” says Kate
Many parents are discovering that they can save up to $50 per week on their grocery bill which can come to an astonishing $6300* over 3 – 3.5 years.
Generally when couples have their first child they drop from two incomes to one so their weekly income is literally cut in half.
These now single income families are providing for a new baby who will cost a small fortune in their first few years of life.
“The main issue that puts parents off using cloth nappies is the initial investment because it can be anything between $500 and $1500 depending on the chosen brand,” says Kate Meads, cloth nappy expert and spokesperson for the New Zealand Nappy Alliance (www.nzna.org.nz)
“However if you had to go and purchase all of your disposable nappies up front, you just wouldn’t buy them because who could afford to spend such a huge amount of money up front on a product you will only use once”–
“We suggest parents purchase their reusable nappies while they are still pregnant and pay them off while they make the most of still having two incomes to draw on,” Says Kate Meads who is also director of Nappy Days Limited (www.nappydays.co.nz)
“These parents can then be happy in the knowledge that they won’t have an additional expense buying disposable nappies each time they go to the supermarket.”
“With a little bit of education, parents are discovering that using Modern cloth nappies take no longer to use than disposables and they are finding out first hand how much these wonder nappies are saving them on a weekly basis.”
Kate also knows many parents become overwhelmed when researching their nappy options because of the amount of information available online.
This resulted in her writing a book titled ‘Modern Cloth Nappies’
“I wrote ‘Modern Cloth Nappies’ to help parents decide which type of nappy would most suit their lifestyle and to dispel the many myths surrounding cloth nappies today” Says Kate
Kate has provided her book to Waitakere City Council who is jointly publishing it so they can use it as a resource in the Waitakere City area.
"This book is clear and informative for anyone who is starting out with cloth nappies. The book covers all the various types of cloth nappies available on the market while being an easy read - a great resource for cloth nappy users." Says Jennifer Aschenbrenner, cleaner production officer, Waitakere City Council
“I am hopeful my book will be used and supported in future by other councils and that it will make choosing and using washable nappies far easier for parents, potentially saving them thousands,” says Kate
Subscribe to:
Posts
(
Atom
)