The nappy problem

Business Daily

BBC

News, Business

4.4 • 796 Ratings

🗓️ 18 January 2023

⏱️ 19 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Billions of disposable nappies, or diapers, are produced every year and sales are booming. Most go to landfill, some pollute rivers and oceans and a baby can get through 4,000-6,000 nappies by the time they are potty trained.

New dad and Business Daily presenter Rick Kelsey looks into whether the available alternatives to disposable nappies are as cheap or convenient for parents. We hear from with nappy innovators Jason and Kim Graham-Nye in Indonesia, who’ve been in the market for 20 years, about how the alternative industry has changed.

The City of Brussels in Belgium is planning to introduce washable, and therefore reusable, nappies in all 40 of its municipal daycare centres by 2026. Arnaud Pinxteren who is leading the scheme tells us how it works. Meanwhile Larissa Copello, who works on the nappy issue for the campaign group Zero Waste Europe, tells us how schemes like the one in Brussels could be scaled up.

Presenter/producer: Rick Kelsey

(Photo: Nappy change. Credit: Getty Images)

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	The comb is the podcast that seeks out stories and voices from across Africa that otherwise might go unheard.
0:07.3	The com.
0:08.1	Each week we focus on a single story that matters.
0:11.2	The comb.
0:12.1	Find out more at the end of this podcast.
0:17.9	Whether you call them nappies or diapers, it's the same problem.
0:22.1	Nappies were just another example of where we're constantly using plastic in our everyday lives.
0:29.1	And it was just, it was in my face when I was there surrounded by all these nephews.
0:35.0	Billions are produced every year.
0:37.2	Most go to landfill, some pollute rivers,
0:40.0	and sales of plastic disposables are booming.
0:45.1	I mean, there's definitely got to be another alternative out there.
0:48.5	I know there is.
0:49.1	And I know there's people doing it.
0:51.7	So maybe we need to figure out how we hop on the van wagon.
0:57.5	But what if there was another way?
1:00.1	The obvious reason for us for Indonesia is that 21% of their ocean plastic pollution is nappies,
1:07.5	which is not something you see kind of global scale, but yeah, 21%.
1:12.3	We'll hear how one project in Indonesia aims to dramatically reduce that.
1:17.8	This is Business Daily's Rick Kelsey, looking at the world's nappy problem.
1:22.7	Also, ideas on how to reduce it and the new businesses that could help create a more sustainable
1:28.6	baby changing future.
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from BBC, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of BBC and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.