When disposable nappies were introduced in the late 1970s they were hailed as nothing less than revolutionary. No longer were parents tied to the punishing routine required to keep cloth nappies clean. Babies could be changed swiftly and easily - even on the hoof - and buckets of soaking, dirty nappies disappeared into a bygone era along with traditional prams.
Then came the backlash with the realisation that disposables accounted for 2.4 per cent of total household waste. Over seven million nappies are thrown away daily in the UK, according to a recent report by Mintel - and they will take hundreds of years to decompose. Modern nappies draw liquid from surrounding rubbish in a landfill, so the nappies increase in volume and rob other waste of the moisture it needs to decompose.
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