Nappy wash service in Melbourne? Help!

[littleberlin]

Hi there,

I just telephoned Nappie Wash Service to find that they are no longer offering their wash service, and I had planned on using them after the birth of our baby in February! Does anyone know of any other nappy wash services based in Melbourne? I can't seem to find any others at all.

Thanks!

[Pandora]

what area of melbourne are you in? there are a few but they are area specific - peninsula, geelong, ballarat etc.

[littleberlin]

Oh, in the Seddon/Footscray/Yarraville area. I've found a few outside of Melbourne, but I'm not sure that they deliver to Melbourne areas.

[Pandora]

ah ok. yeah all the ones I could find were for outer suburbs too.

[littleberlin]

Oh, thank you anyway - I wonder why there is such a shortage of these services in the metro area? Such a shame.

[k8mcm]

I finally found a place that's still does nappy wash called 'Broadway linen' in Epping - but they deliver all over Melbourne. I called 5-6 places and nearly all of them told me that no-one does nappy wash anymore (and tried to sell me MCNs).

Well they do! I've been using Broadway Linen's nappies for a month or so, they do toweling and flannelet. And in my area they pickup dirty and deliver clean each Friday.

I only used disposable with my daughter, but she's been such a nightmare to toilet train, and after 3 years of disposables, I started to get the serious ecological guilts - so I'm loving the cloth nappies, and of course it's always nice to have a fresh clean cloth handy (which someone else has washed!).

But it's not cheap - $47 wk for 30 nappies, and $52 for 60, $60 for 90 and so on. The major cost is the washing and delivery (which makes sense). So i reckon the thing to do is to split an order with someone - then it would cost $26 week each for 30, or $30 for 45, which is close to the price of disposables at the supermarket.

If anyone wants to split a service with me & lives Fitzroy/Northcote way - let me know!

[Olive]

have you thought about buying MCN??? would work out cheaper in the long run!

[k8mcm]

i'm sure they are - but washing cloth nappies yourself is about the same as using disposables in terms of environmental impact.

Disposables are bad in terms of landfill - but cloth are problematic in terms of water use (and worse if you're washing in hot water - and using a dryer). Using a nappy service means that you take advantage of the economies of scale in terms of water use & energy - and makes them the most sustainable option.

Besides - I only have 2 kids and I'm already washing every day. I couldn't cope with all the laundry! I'd outsource cooking dinner and washing my own clothes too if i could.

There's an article in Choice magazine about the comparative enviromental impact - Nappies with Choice.com.au.

[k8mcm]

have you thought about buying MCN??? would work out cheaper in the long run!

MCN wouldn't help my environmental guilts. Cloth nappies washed at home are about on par with disposables in terms of environmental impact. But a nappy service uses less water and energy because of the economies of scale of industrial machines.

If you never use a dryer or hot water to wash cloth nappies, it's a better in terms of sustainability, but a nappy wash service is still the best option.

Besides, I already wash every day with two kids, so I'm into outsourcing wherever possible!

[tenar]

Actually, as far as I know, the study that found that MCNs are environmentally similar to disposables, was very flawed. It was sponsored by Pampers and based in the UK, where some things (like how people mostly dry their clothes) are quite different to here.

It assumed things like that each family would own 47 (iirc) cloth nappies but would only wash them 12 at a time and would always dry them in the drier (which costs a fortune, definitely uses loads of energy, and wrecks the nappies faster), that the nappies were wet-pailed and soaked in chemicals, etc.

If you own a more reasonable number of nappies, like 30 say (you can get by with a lot less, actually), dry them on the line as much as you can, use an environmentally responsible detergent in the tiny quantities, the environmental impact of MCNs is way less than disposables.

Think of one MCN, used every second day for 2 years. Then compare it to a pile of 365 disposables. Even though the MCN is heavier and may have stuff like PUL in it which doesn't decompose, there is no way it is worse for the environment than maunfacturing 365 disposables, full of the chemicals that absorb water, and the plastics that don't decompose either. The water cost of washing MCNs doesn't compare to the water cost of maunfacturing disposables, and things get even better if you always wash large loads (I wash my nappies with the baby clothes, after rinsing the poo off first).

It's still true that the economy of scale offered by nappy-wash places beats all, I think it probably even still beats all even with the pollution caused by the delivery and pickup process. But home-washed MCNs aren't that bad.

You can find out heaps more about this stuff if you browse MCN websites, but it's hard to find links to the studies done comparing their use with the use of disposables, let alone where those studies were published (ie in which journals and how reputable they are). Here's a discussion of this stuff (someone's university research project) that does link its sources, for starters,
Compare Nappies - Home

Hope that helps.

[Janie]

OMG, I'm shattered! I used nappie wash service for 8 months with my DS, and planned on using for at least a few months (hopefully longer ) with this bub too. Glad I saw this thread, now I can go off and see what else is available........

[Olive]

janie i was hoping youd pop in!

i have to say when i use MCN i warm wash and line dry i hardly use the dryer! check out the info tenar gave you

[Janie]

Actually, having used both MCN and wash service, I would guess that doing it yourself is much more environmentally friendly. Like, heaps more. I just like the convenience of the wash service, all I have to do is fold the nappies. I use flats for a little baby anyway, so I may as well have someone else wash them for me . So I can't pretend that my choices are all about environmental impact. I really struggle to believe that using cloth at home is as bad environmentally as disposables. That study is very much flawed .