The Environmental Impact of Nappies

Nappies and the
environment

TABLE OF CONTENTS
TITLE..............................................................................................................................................1
AIM..................................................................................................................................................1
PROBLEM STATEMENT .............................................................................................................1
RATIONALE...................................................................................................................................1
RESEARCH QUESTION................................................................................................................2
METHODOLOGY..........................................................................................................................2
RESOURCE IDENTIFICATION....................................................................................................2
REFERENCES ...............................................................................................................................5

TITLE
Nappies and the environment
AIM
To analyse the impact of using nappies on environment and sustainability.
PROBLEM STATEMENT
According to statistics provided by reports of Nappies- sustainability Victoria,
2019 around 3.75 million nappies are disposed every day in Australia. For
manufacturing of a single disposable nappy approximately one cup crude oil is needed.
There are both disposable and reusable nappies available for however each of the type
has significant impact on the environment. Disposable nappies are disposed in landfills
and takes more than 150 years to completely dispose. Thus, they have adverse impact
on environment and natural resources as they pollute land, water and other resources.
Similarly, the reusable or cloth nappies also consume large amount of energy in terms
of water used for recycling (Sotuku, Okeke and Mathwasa, 2016). Thus, there is need to
analyse the impact of nappies on environment so that nappy wastage can be managed
properly. The study will highlight the adverse impact caused by using nappies so that
suitable solutions and alternative options can be determined to resolve the issue.
RATIONALE
The topic has been chosen for the study because the environmental degradation
caused by nappies is usually not taken seriously by the users and the concerned
authorities. However, the increasing environmental concerns due to nappies must be
taken into account so that better environment friendly solutions can be developed.
Disposable nappies forms a good percentage of landfill waste and their decomposition
results in emission of green house gases. Their long term accumulation in landfills also
pollute water resources and land. The manufacturing and waste management of
degradable nappies plays great role in causing environment pollution (Council, 2016).
Though many people are also shifting towards using recyclable nappies which can be
washed and reused. However, the excessive consumption of natural resources remains
the prime issue. Thus, the successful completion of the study will be helpful in
assessing the possible environment concerns and their solutions.
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RESEARCH QUESTION
The study is aimed to address the following research questions:
 What impact does nappies have on environment?
 Does disposable nappies act as better choice for cloth nappies in terms of
environment sustainability?
 Which strategies can be adopted to minimise the harmful impact of nappies on
environment?
METHODOLOGY
The study is qualitative type and thus uses non-statistical data for the analysis
purpose. For collecting the data secondary data collection will be used. Various
statistics from the environmental agencies, journals and articles will be used. The
secondary sources used for the study are not older than 10 years so that their relevancy
can be maintained. The articles chosen for the study will be searched by using different
search engines and only authenticated sources are chosen for the analysis purpose.
Though there are certain limitations which limits the scope of the study and imposes
challenges for it. For instance there is very limited data and statistics regarding
environmental damage caused by nappies.
The proposed study aims at analysing the impact of using nappies and how the
trends can be changed to resolve the environmental concerns. One of the uniqueness
of proposed study is that it does not deny the effectiveness and use of nappies or
simply favours the recyclable nappies. Instead, it evaluates both positive and negative
perspective of different types of nappies. Thus, the articles selected for the study were
chosen with the aim that they reflect the overall perspective of the chosen issue instead
of providing biased opinion.
RESOURCE IDENTIFICATION
The following articles are chosen for gaining the in-depth knowledge of the topic.
The rationale and findings from each of the source is provided as below:
Article 1: Cloth dipers vs. Disposable diapers- Just the facts. 2015
The most effective aspect which makes the chosen article relevant for the study
is that it provides the comparative analysis of both disposal and cloth nappies. Thus,
along with the environmental concerns article also helps to understand the different
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