Cloth nappies made in the UK

Good point, thank you

I was told recently that my friend's bamboo nappies are better for the environment than my microfibre ones, but there's not a lot of bamboo grown in the UK...!

More research needed

I live in the East Midlands and farmers grow bamboo here! There are fields and fields of it. I can't imagine what its for if not for cloth.

Brilliant - thank you

Anyone know if pop-ins are UK made?

No, they are made in China. They claim that it is more eco-friendly to make the nappies before exporting them, as they use Chinese bamboo, and then the waste scraps are not being transported. They also claim they they provide excellent working conditions for their workers, which is of course very important. However, China is an ENORMOUS country, and the fabric could well be transported thousands of miles in the opposite direction to UK, before the nappies are made. I do not know where about in China the fabric is made, or where about their nappies are manufactured - does anyone know?

Fabrics are all manufactured abroad - sadly the UK has no textile manufacturers any more. Many companies claim that to manufacture nappies overseas is better, as then the scraps are not imported. However, I'm not convinced - the fabric will often be imported long distances before the manufacture of nappies, and it may be better to import the fabric to UK in the first place. I haven't come across any Egyptian cotton nappies manufactured in Egypt for example! Most manufacturers will also use the cut off fabric to make other items - washable wipes etc.so there shouldn't be that much waste anyway!

eg. To make nappies in Australia, Australia first has to import the fabric from India, China, US or somewhere thousands of miles away, very often taking the fabric further away from UK from where it was originally manufactured. They then export the made nappies to UK, so the fabric has traveled many additional thousands of miles - firstly away from UK, and then back again. If the fabric is imported directly to UK, then there is a large saving on nappy miles.

Another argument of course is that nappy manufacturers in UK (and throughout Europe of course) must pay their workers the minimum wage, and so there is no possibility that the nappies are made by workers for minute wages, or in atrocious conditions!

I'm not sure if I've explained this very well, but I know this will initiate a big discussion, so look forward to hearing what everyone else thinks!

That's the problem with trying to do things ethically now-a-days. It is almost impossible, especially as people expect things to be cheap and possible. I hate buying new clothes (I try to buy second hand wherever possible) because of this. Whilst you might be buying 'fairtrade' cotton, you can guarrantee that somewhere down the line there will be people who have been massively taken advantage of.