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Council leaders are calling for manufacturers to pay towards the cost of the growing "nappy mountain". The Local Government Association, as part of the War on Waste campaign, wants companies to foot the £67 million annual cost of burying used disposable nappies in landfill.
Nearly three billion nappies are thrown away in the UK each year with 90% ending up in landfill sites. Nappy disposal costs each local authority hundreds of thousands of pounds a year and landfill sites are becoming increasingly rare and expensive to use.
Nottinghamshire County Council estimates it costs over £1 million a year to bin disposables while Bristol City Council estimates a £500,000 cost to landfill nappies. Councils, and consequently the taxpayer, are facing fines of up to £150 per tonne of rubbish that is sent to be dumped into landfill sites. According to the National Audit Office, fines of up to £200million could hit taxpayers for the failure to cut the amount that is thrown in landfill.
Many councils have schemes in place to encourage parents to buy re-usable nappies. Some authorities give parents cashback incentives of up to £80 for using washable nappies. Others offer payments towards laundry bills for cleaning re-usable nappies.
Cllr Paul Bettison, Chairman of the LGA Environment Board, said:
"Around eight million nappies are thrown away every day in the UK. All eight million end up in landfill as there isn’t any other way to deal with a disposable nappy. It can‘‘t be recycled. It is high time that nappy manufacturers were made to take full responsibility for the life cycle of their products. Its totally unacceptable that the council tax payer is picking up the bill for landfilling disposable nappies"
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