Families may get vouchers to help buy cloth nappies

NEW parents should be given taxpayer-funded vouchers to buy reusable cloth nappies, say green campaigners.

The call comes amid growing concern over avoidable plastic waste – about 25 per cent of a disposable nappy is made of plastic and three billion nappies a year end up in landfill sites.

The Treasury is looking at the voucher scheme idea as part of a consultation into measures to discourage plastic waste.

Reusable nappies are far more sophisticated than the terry-towelling type seen on the 1950s-set BBC show Call The Midwife. They are now shaped like disposables, fastened with Velcro or poppers and are cleaned in a washing machine.

Some councils already encourage parents to buy reusables by offering vouchers worth up to £54.

But Guy Schanschieff, chairman of the Nappy Alliance representing reusable nappy firms, has asked the Treasury to introduce national vouchers.

He said: ‘A national voucher scheme would be more effective and a national message would be much easier to get across to parents. One way is to give vouchers to every new mother in hospital.’

Caroline Lucas, Green Party co-leader, said: ‘Ministers should be actively supporting incentives for new parents to affordably use alternatives to disposable nappies.’

Will McCallum, Greenpeace UK head of oceans campaign, said: ‘Any scheme should start by looking at incentives to help parents make easier choices.

‘And whether this is done through a voucher scheme for reusable nappies offered to new parents or a better system to dispose of nappies – the solution has to be national.’

A Treasury spokesman said responses to the consultation were still being reviewed.