Today a chat came up in my Parenting View Facebook group about the disposal of nappies – specifically the disposal of poo.
Most of you don’t know this but written on the back of disposable nappy packs are the words “Disposal instructions: Excess soiling should be removed and flushed down the toilet. Do not flush the nappy down the toilet. Roll nappy into a tight ball using the grip tabs to reseal. Discard into waste bin.”
The main point is – EXCESS SOILING SHOULD BE REMOVED AND FLUSHED DOWN THE TOILET.
A lot of people will be thinking “What the heck Maria! There’s no way I’m doing that!”; or even “Maria, you can’t wash down a disposable nappy” …
But in fact that’s not what I OR the back of the nappy pack is saying. If you can remove any poo from the nappy by tipping it into the toilet, then you should do so.
Not just to eliminate rubbish smell, but also for the environment and our health. There’s a reason we poo in the toilet and not into a bag!
Our toilet water gets taken to a treatment plant where it is treated with many chemicals to not only make it safe to use again, but also to kill the bugs.
If you dump your poo in the rubbish, it gets taken to a rubbish tip and just left to sit there. That’s how diseases start!
Exert taken from Wikipedia: “Human waste is considered a biowaste, as it is a vector for both viral and bacterial diseases. It can be a serious health hazard if it gets into sources of drinking water. The World Health Organisation (WHO) reports that nearly 2.2 million people die annually from diseases caused by contaminated water. A major accomplishment of human civilization has been the reduction of disease transmission via human waste through the practice of hygiene and sanitation, which can employ a variety of different technologies.”
Cloth or Disposable: IT DOESN’T MATTER
Obviously if your kid has diarrhoea, you can’t really do much about that if you’re using a disposable nappy, but if you have a cloth nappy you can!
We used cloth nappies for both of our kids. You just get into a habit of tipping the excess into the toilet and then washing down the rest into the washing tub. It really isn’t hard.
If you have disposables, then you can still do it. You can buy a specific brush to get rid of the poo into the toilet, or use toilet paper OR you can even just give the nappy a good shake and it’ll come off. Once you get the hang of it, it’s not hard – promise!
It’s simply about getting rid of the bulk of it, if you can. Obviously if it’s liquid there isn’t much you can do about it.
A few people commented in the Facebook group saying “what’s the point of having disposables if you have to do that” – well the point of the disposable is that you can throw the nappy away and not have to wash it. Disposables or cloth: you’re still supposed to dispose of the faeces in the same way.
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Guys, honestly I’m not here to tell you what to do, but knowledge is power. A lot of you won’t know this, and you can choose to do what you want with it – but you should at least be made aware of it.
I wish people were told this rather than having to read it in the small print on the back of a pack of disposable nappies though! Surely as parents we should know about this before we have kids HA!
According to the local councils, there is no rule around disposing of poo in the rubbish. Obviously it’s better for the environment if you put it in the toilet, but there are no council rules about it (trust me, I called to find out). The nappy, however, needs to go in the rubbish bin itself: NOT in the recycling bin and not illegally dumped (you can get fined for this).
However, just because it’s not a rule with the council, doesn’t mean you shouldn’t be doing it.
Did you know you were supposed to flush the poos down the toilet?
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