Armagh City, Banbridge and Craigavon: only two grants handed out for council's cloth nappy scheme

The scheme – designed to encourage citizens to use traditional cloth nappies, and hence reduce the number of disposable nappies in residual waste – was mentioned at an Environmental Services committee meeting of the council.

The relevant agenda item outlined: "Under the terms of our Real Cloth Nappy Scheme, council would reimburse £30 to those who spend £50 or more on the purchase of reusable cloth nappies. However, since its launch in January 2024, six requests for application forms, and only two successful applications, have been made.

"It is estimated that parents would need to spend in the region of £100 on reusable nappies to have enough to cater for a single child and hence, although the reimbursement offered by council is generous, the initial outlay expected from parents may be prohibitive for many families.

"Nevertheless, officers are currently engaging with our Communications section to help raise the profile of the scheme.”

Meanwhile, ABC Council has received correspondence from Ards & North Down Borough Council, relating to a proposed nappy collection scheme.

The agenda item explains: “The letter sets out a Notice of Motion which was passed at the Ards & North Down Borough Council meeting in November 2024, and which asks that the DAERA minister engages with the council (and any other like-minded councils) to develop a plan to account for disposable nappies and other sanitary products differently from their current inclusion in residual waste.

"Ards & North Down figures show that around 4% of their residual waste is made up of nappies and other disposable sanitary waste.

"By their nature, it will be difficult to decrease the usage of disposable nappies, and hence if tonnages are reduced, there will be no proportional reduction in the weights associated with these products. Ards & North Down therefore believes there is a need to consider them separately.

"ABC officers believe there is a potential benefit in joining Ards and North Down in discussing options to deal with this issue, and the recommendation seeks permission to engage with this process, as well as to continue with our own reusable cloth nappy scheme.”

The first recommendation brought before committee members, was for them to write to the DAERA minister in support of the proposal from Ards and North Down for a nappy collection scheme in order to meet recycling targets, and to support households if grey bin capacity is reduced as a result of any future Departmental strategy.

An additional recommendation was for committee members to continue the ABC Council’s current scheme to support the purchase of real cloth reusable nappies by residents.

Councillor Jessica Johnston (Alliance, Lagan River DEA) commented: “Anything that we can do to help Northern Ireland to meet its recycling targets is to be welcomed. And I suppose it is encouraging that we are going to stick with our own scheme.

The above recommendations were proposed by Councillor Johnston, and seconded by Cllr Robbie Alexander (Alliance, Craigavon DEA).

To apply for a £30 grant towards the cost of reusable cloth nappies, email [email protected]