The Western Australian town tackling waste reduction with cloth nappies, one clean baby at a time

Tucked in between the towering trees and beautiful beaches of WA's southern coast, the small town of Denmark has developed a reputation for being a "green" haven.

For years, Denmark has attracted eco-minded individuals of all ages, such as Carolyn Oliff.

Carolyn, 72, has long been a strong advocate for reducing plastic waste, so it made perfect sense when she rallied the local council to back her idea of a free reusable cloth nappy for every baby born in town.

"My dream is to see more classic cloth nappies in retail stores … everywhere you can buy a disposable nappy, you should have the option of a cloth nappy right next to that," Carolyn says.

That's happened at the local supermarket, but as Carolyn points out you first need to convince families to give the reusable option a go, hence the gift of a cloth nappy for every newborn.

"I know a lot of councils have done a similar thing … if people buy [cloth nappies], they will reimburse [part of the cost] ... but I just felt that that really targeted the people who were already thinking about it.

And Carolyn has taken it upon herself to hand make the nappies — every last one.

Tick of approval from parents

Kate Evans and Simona Sevelova are local mothers and cloth nappy enthusiasts, and have both used them for their children.

"I wasn't expecting them to be as easy as they were," says Kate.

"We were super hardcore with [our eldest] Lui in them … I think we used six disposable nappies in Lui's whole life."

Simona agrees the reusable nappies are simple to use, but says it doesn't have to be all or nothing; she still uses disposables at night as they tend to hold more moisture, which reduces the number of overnight changes needed.

Simona and Kate both say the reusable nappies tend to smell less than their disposable counterparts.

"I think the cloth nappies don't have that bad smell because … they don't hold the moisture as well, so you have to change them often," says Simona.

"With disposables, you can leave them longer I think, and that's what makes the bad smell."

Simona says she has around thirty reusable nappies that she rotates through, making one load of nappy washing every three days.

And while thirty nappies may sound like a lot, Carolyn explained it works out to be considerably cheaper than buying disposables.

Crunching the numbers

Disposables can vary greatly in cost and can range between 14 cents to $1 per nappy. Over the course of their nappy-wearing years, it's estimated a baby will go through around 6,000 disposables.

Cloth nappies generally have higher up-front costs. Aside from the freebies that are given to each Denmark newborn, Carolyn sells cloth nappies at local markets for $10 each.

In retail stores, cloth nappies cost anywhere from $12 to $35. So for a haul of 20 new reusable nappies, a family could expect to pay between $240 to $700.

However, cloth nappies that are well cared for can serve multiple sets of cheeks before needing to be replaced.

Kate says most of the cloth nappies she uses for her little ones she received from a mother who had already used them for her two children.

"Noah is the fourth baby they'll go through, and he's nearly finished, and most of them are good enough to hang onto," Kate says.

One concern often raised by families considering switching to cloth nappies is the extra water and energy used to clean the cloth nappies. According to industry body the Australian Nappy Association, the annual cost of washing reusable nappies comes to around $100 per baby.

A 2009 study by the University of Queensland found that cloth nappies do use significantly more water (when washing in a top-loader machine) than disposable nappies. However, it found reusable nappies have the "least environmental impact" overall by producing less solid waste and using less total energy.

A community effort

These "Reduce, Reuse, Recycle" practices are precisely what the town is hoping to foster. 

Denmark's Sustainability Officer Yvette Caruso, says the project is all about "encouraging individual and community behaviour change towards more sustainable outcomes."

Yvette says there are around 60 babies born in town each year, which adds up to a lot of disposable nappies going to landfill. Conventional disposable nappies are estimated to take 150 years to break down.

And while there's still a lot of families hesitant about making the shift to reusable nappies, Carolyn points out that it's not a new idea — she remembers the days of cloth wrapping prior to disposables becoming mainstream.

"I think it's good now that there is more awareness of the environment and waste," says Carolyn.

"Hopefully, we'll come back to more and more people using cloth."