SUSTAINABLE SOLUTIONS
A SHIFT TO SUSTAINABLE PARENTING
FACTS YOU SHOULD KNOW WHEN DECIDING ON NAPPIES
TOP EXUSES STILL GIVEN FOR NOT TAKING RESPONSIBILITY FOR WASTE PRODUCED BY DISPOSABLES
HEMP: IN THIS BRIGHT FUTURE WE CAN'T FORGET THE PAST...
A SHIFT TO SUSTAINABLE PARENTING
- a talk by Victoria Penfold, creator of the all-in-one eco-friendly nappy, on World Environment Day.
Since starting Bio-Baba nappies 5 years ago, I have been pleased to see a radical shift in thinking towards the inclusion of cloth nappies in a nappy routine. Originally, when people discovered that they had to wash them, they simply were not interested and stopped listening to reasons why it was a good idea, citing lack of time or sheer disinterest in 'someone else's problem' as the basis for not wanting to go the 'eco-route'.
However, that was before we had to pay for plastic bags, before the tsunami, before the 'fuel crisis', before the discovery of a mountain of plastic in the ocean that stretches from Hawaii to Japan:
“The vast expanse of debris - in effect the worlds largest rubbish dump - is held in place by swirling underwater currents. This drifting “soup” stretches from about 500 nautical miles off the Californian coast, across the northern Pacific, past Hawaii and almost as far as Japan.”
Now people are finally waking up to the sad reality that there will not be a planet for their beloved children to inherit if they do not take the warnings seriously. After all, if learned people such as George Orwell are to be believed, “We humans are capable of convincing ourselves of something that is not true long after the accumulated evidence would convince any reasonable person that it's wrong.”
So are South African parents really prepared to make a change? Do the rich and affluent still suffer from 'affluenza' - a sickness where you believe that because you are successful and can afford to buy and throw away as much as you like, environmental concerns have nothing to do with you?
top
FACTS YOU SHOULD KNOW WHEN DECIDING ON NAPPIES
If you have a baby in disposable nappies in your home, your household waste doubles!
In 2 ½ years in disposable nappies a baby will have:
- used 325kg of plastic
- 20 trees worth of paper
- produced 1 tonne of landfill space
Disposable nappies are one of the world's biggest household waste contributors along with newspapers and containers/packaging for food. Your household is no different... 9 million are thrown away a day in the UK and 20 billion a year in the US and Canada...they do not bio-degrade!
Saliem Haider at the City Waste Management has this to say:
“Cape Town is facing a major landfill airspace crisis. Two years ago 6 landfills were operational, and a few months from now we would have only 3 operational...
There are some smaller municipalities in the Western Cape with bigger problems than Cape Town. The Johannesburg City area also has a crisis at hand.”
· Waste in South Africa is currently growing at 5% faster than the population growth
· Nappies are classified as medical waste and should be incinerated - however individual municipalities in South Africa do not have the resources to do this there is the Polokwane Declaration which the Govt. has signed which means that there is a mandate to reduce our waste by a specific %....however, we all have a mandate to watch over our resources...and we all know - if we wait for govt... we might wait a long long time!
· Take 5 fingers and put them on your nose...that is where the buck stops. Reduce, Re-use, Re-cycle. Children live what they learn... choose a sustainable future for your baby.
top
TOP EXCUSES STILL GIVEN FOR NOT TAKING RESPONSIBILITY FOR WASTE PRODUCED BY DISPOSABLES
Excuse No.1: “Cloth nappies are too much hassle; I don't have the time.”
You have to ask yourself - do you have to change a babies' nappy? Obviously you do, (this is where the design of the cloth nappy you choose really comes into the equation), so if you use a super absorbent all-in-one hemp nappy like Bio-Baba, it is just as easy to fit as a disposable; it is also just as effective as you only have to change after 3hours and, with extra hemp boosters, it can effectively be used for a 'sleep through' night! Okay ... so it is easy to fit ... is just as effective as a disposable (with no chemicals) ... but what about the washing? For a start you will not be washing as many nappies if you use Bio-Babas since their added absorbency means you will not be changing as often; so washing is done every second day. If you have a washing machine, not to mention any form of domestic help, then this is simply no excuse!
Excuse No.2: “I can't afford Bio-Baba nappies”
This is possibly one of the most illogical excuses since if you have a child in disposables for a 2½ year period (6000 nappy changes) then you will be spending (at today's prices), between R12 000 and R15 000 for the sake of convenience. If you use Bio-Baba nappies (including at night), you could save up to R10 000 over this time! The catch is that you have to buy and pay for them all at once, which is seen as a convenient excuse - 'why I can't so I don't'. However, since Bio-Babas can be conveniently paid over several months on credit card ... this simply doesn't make sense.
Excuse No.3: “I am not the one! Too lazy, can't be bothered, don't care.”
I once had one of my well educated friends tell me that her mother-in-law had refused to use Bio-Baba nappies as she considered herself 'above that sort of thing'. Her actual comment was that she was going to 'let the next generation worry about it'! Well, what can you say to that? Ironically, she was an incredibly caring and attentive grandmother who had taken on the responsibility of looking after baby when my friend returned to work ... she just seemed unable to make the connection between her choices and the future of her grandson.
Are you one of those people that Mr Orwel was talking about? Did you know that:
Disposable nappies are one of the world's biggest household waste contributors along with newspapers and containers/packaging for food. Your household is no different... 9 million a day in the UK and 20 billion a year in the US and Canada ... and they do not biodegrade!
If you have a baby in disposable nappies your household waste doubles!
In 2 ½ years in disposable nappies a baby will have:
- used 325kg of plastic
- 20 trees worth of paper
- produced 1 tonne of landfill space
Waste in South Africa is currently growing at 5% faster than the population growth.
Nappies are classified as medical waste and should be incinerated - however individual municipalities in South Africa do not have the resources to do this; it is actually illegal for health reasons to dispose of human faecal matter in municipal bins, but nobody I know flushes what their child does in a disposable down the toilet before throwing it away. This poses a health and environmental threat as there is danger of the leaching of live viruses (given in the form of vaccination to babies) from landfills where disposables are dumped into our water system. We have just had a recent wave of mysterious baby deaths from contaminated water in the Eastern Cape ... you have to wonder?
Excuse No.4: “My crèche only takes disposables.”
I have found that this is not true ... without exception, the people who run crèches are more than willing to use something that is just as easy to fit and change as a disposable, especially when the parent takes the time to explain that they are changing to Bio-Babas for financial and environmental reasons. In a country where people are working to sustain themselves, very often for less than R2000 a month, it is not only an environmental, but a social injustice too that some of them are spending as much as a third of their salaries on disposable nappies and childcare!
Children really do live what they learn ... I encourage all parents to choose a sustainable future for their baby by incorporating a cost-effective and easy to use cloth nappy like Bio-Baba into their nappy routines; limit disposable use to holidays and emergencies ... use cloth nappies around the house, when visiting friends and at crèche. Future generations depend on us; the time is NOW - we all can make a difference!
top
HEMP: IN THIS BRIGHT FUTURE WE CAN'T FORGET THE PAST...
By Tony Budden
Most people, upon hearing about the multitude of uses of the wonderful hemp plant, think that it is something that has recently been discovered and exposed and wonder why we aren't using and growing it everywhere.
What many don't realise is that hemp and man have and extremely long history together. In fact hemp, known in other languages as asa, hanf, hamp, chanvre, bhang, canamo, kannab or cannabis, is thought to be one of the earliest plants cultivated for the production of a textile fibre.
It was only during the last century that cannabis hemp was associated with its narcotic cousin marijuana, and therefore banned in many countries. For 8 000 years or more before that it was the world's largest agricultural crop, producing the majority of our fibre, paper, fabric, lighting oil and medicines, as well as food oil and protein for both humans and animals.
It appears from historical evidence that hemp originated in central Asia, between the Himalayas and Siberia, and then spread through the migration of man to all corners of the earth.
The incredible diversity and usefulness of the hemp plant accelerated its spread to almost every continent and culture. Because of its strength and durability as a fabric and cord, it was used almost exclusively in the sails and rigging of the ships that left Europe to explore the world.
Wherever the explorers landed, hemp was one of the first seeds they propagated, as it grew so quickly and could meet so many of their requirements for clothing, food and fuel. Hemp soon spread from Europe to North and South America in the 1500s, and at a later stage to Australia, where many people survived a famine in the 1800s by eating hemp seed as protein and hemp leaves as roughage.
Hemp continued to flourish and meet many of the needs of the colonialists until the middle of the 19th century, when new tropical fibres were introduced, the petrochemical age began, steamships replaced sails and the toxic sulphur and chlorine processes to make paper from wood pulp were developed.
Hemp continued in its rightful place as an important agricultural crop until the 1930s, when new machinery was invented to break the hemp, process the fibre and convert the hurds into paper. This drew the attention of the synthetic fibre producers (nylon had just been invented) and the paper and cotton industry magnates, who believed that they stood to lose billions of dollars if hemp's commercial potential was fully exploited.
They were largely responsible for the 'reefer madness' propaganda campaign that in 1937 resulted in the outlawing of this natural fibre, thus destroying their natural competition. They achieved this by demonising and outlawing the narcotic marijuana and thereby banishing the entire cannabis family, including hemp and its many thousands of legitimate uses.
It was around this time that Henry Ford invented a car () that had a body made of hemp composites and ran on hemp fuel, in an attempt to fulfil his dream of 'growing automobiles from the soil'. But since hemp was banned at the time, and the petrochemical industry was making great advances, petrol was soon the prevailing fuel for motor vehicles, a move that has cost the planet dearly and will continue to do so until we move back to environmentally-responsible fuel sources.
A few years later, during the Second World War, the legislation was again changed when the Japanese cut off the supplies of Manila hemp needed for uniforms and ropes. The US Department of Agriculture then promoted hemp again, with a film 'Hemp for Victory' that urged farmers to grow the crop to meet the demands for fibre. After this brief return to favour, hemp was again banned in 1955, as it is in the States to this day.
The USA's attitude towards hemp has influenced many other countries to adopt similar legislation. Part of the USA's criteria for foreign aid is the dismantling of the receiving country's drug industry. Since hemp and marijuana are seen as the same by the US government, a hemp industry would deny any country access to valuable foreign aid.
Despite this, many countries have recently recognised hemp's potential and its value as an environmentally responsible crop. More than 30 nations, including England, France, Germany, China and Canada, now have a legal hemp industry, and many more are undertaking research in a move towards a change in legislation.
Although hemp has lost out on nearly a century of technological and market development, farmers and businesses are rediscovering its incredible potential across the planet. As hemp research and cultivation resumes, many more uses for it will be developed.
The search is on for alternatives to pesticide-greedy cotton, forest-destroying paper, war-generating and polluting petrochemicals, and nutritionally devoid western diets.
Although hemp is only part of the solution, many believe that it is the only known renewable natural resource that can meet nearly all our requirements to move back to a healthier, greener planet.
Here in South Africa there have been many research trials over the last 8 years. Although we have identified industrial hemp strains that grow well in our climate, we still face the major stumbling block that is the Department of Health's refusal to acknowledge the difference between low THC industrial hemp strains and high THC Marijuana/Dagga strains.
Things are progressing though, and the hemp cause is gathering support from within the government, including the Department of Agriculture and the Department of Environmental Affairs and Development.
With an industry that can offer so much with regards to job creation, housing, nutrition and fuel, we can only hope that this amazing plant is soon given the opportunity to prove it's claim to be a planet saver.
top
|
