Saturday, February 2, 2013

Camping with Cloth Nappies - Eco–Disposable Pads

I haven't done heaps of camping, but enough to know that a garbage bag full of dirty nappies, sitting in the sun stinks! This time we're camping with 2 in nappies, one a newborn, so with the number of nappies doubled, if not tripled, it was time to try out cloth!

Since we were camping in a national park rather than a caravan park, I opted for Eco-disposables as we wouldn't have any washing facilities close by. I took a collection of nappy covers and pocket nappies to use as All In Twos (AI2s) and a packet each of small and medium Eenee Flushable Pads.
The beauty of these pads is they're completely biodegradable as well as compost-able and flushable, so no matter where you are there is a way to get rid of them. In our camp area there was a composting toilet and the parks and wildlife guys who came to clean them were happy for me to put the used pads in there when I told them they were biodegradable. (They were really pleased that I checked with them too.) And when we went out for the day, I was able to flush them in the toilet or, if we were somewhere that didn't have a toilet at all, I could dig a hole & buried them (usually when I did my own business) or take them back to camp & put them in the toilet there. I guess I could have probably put them in the fire too, but would probably like to do a little more research before making it a habit. It couldn't be any worse than burning plastic or disposable nappies, though - which I've seen done before!
NOTE: The Eenee instructions say to rip them half length ways before disposing. My guess is, this makes them easy to flush (less likely to block the loo) & exposes the inside for quicker biodegrading.

I found this system worked well and I felt good about the lack of waste (& stink) I was making :) I had a plastic grocery bag that kept the used pads in between trips to the loo & kept that in a wet bag to keep the stinkies at bay. If I'd thought of it before i left, i could also have used the Eenee biodegradable disposable nappy bags. I was surprised how well the pads worked inside the covers. I expected the covers to get messy quicker, especially, with my newborn, but they were very absorbent & contained the mess well.

The main disadvantages I found were having to deal with the soggy pads and then dirty hands and soiled covers. Since I normally use pocket nappies, I'm used to being able to roll them up & carry them to the laundry without getting my hands too dirty, although, since I started using some All In Twos, as well as prefolds/fitteds & covers on my newborn, I've had to deal with soggy boosters more & it's not really the end of the world. We usually had a bucket of dish washing water handy or I'd use my hand sanitizer.
With the dirty covers, since we were only there a few days, I just kept them in a double layered (Baby Beehinds) wet bag until we got home, but if we were there longer I could easily have rinsed and dried them & either used them again or taken them home for a proper wash.
The other thing to take into consideration is the cost. The pads are around 60c each for a small and 80c for the mediums, so a little more than a good quality disposable, but for the sake of the environment and my sanity, I think it's worth it. If we were staying longer or at a caravan park, I'd probably choose pocket nappies with microfibre boosters and use the laundry facilities or a nearby laundromat, just to save my purse that little bit more.
But all up, in a similar situation, I'd definitely use the Eenee Eco-disposable nappy pads again, in fact, I think I will... This coming weekend :)

Have you taken your cloth nappies camping before? I'd love to hear what you used & how you found it!


2 comments:

Apollo Motorhome Holidays said...

Despite the disadvantages, eco-disposable nappies are perfect for camping or simply jet-setting during the holiday. Glad to know your whole family enjoyed the getaway.

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