It's a tough choice, the whole nappy thing. There's no doubt that disposables are convenient, but does that convenience outweigh the costs - both financial and environmental? Is there a compromise between ease and convenience, and reusability (or at least biodegradability)? The choice isn't simple, because once you look into it, there are many, many alternatives out there and almost no way of making an informed decision.

Let's start at the beginning. Your baby is born and if it's in a hospital, and it's your first, you will almost certainly be led straight down the disposable route. 'Bounty packs' don't help - they're filled with products that suggest 'disposable is right', and there is seldom heard a dissenting voice. In William's experience, new parents probably have enough to deal with without having to make decisions about which nappy is right, so it's probably OK at this point to relax and let the advertising people work their magic.

However, the rot starts when you've been home for a couple of weeks or so, and suddenly realise that the wheelie bin is overflowing every week, whereas before it might have only been half full. Where's the extra coming from? That's right - disposable nappies. Aside from the fact that you're shelling out hand over fist every five minutes to buy the things, they also represent a significant environmental risk, and probably a public health one too. The problem is that 'disposable' nappies are made of things that aren't well suited to environmentally responsible disposal. The problem is worsened by the fact that conditions in landfill sites aren't conducive to rapid biodegradability. Topped by the annoying detail that tonnes of essentially raw human sewage are thus being dumped in our landfills, the contents of which will eventually find their way into our water supply at some point, and you're faced with fairly compelling reasons for seeking an alternative. But what is that alternative?

For some, it's the biodegradable disposable nappy. These might have seemed like the perfect answer - giving the convenience of a disposable nappy without the environmental hazard. However, there are a couple of points that require further consideration: production cost and disposal. Because these are single use nappies, the production costs must be less than the cost of cleaning re-useables for them to be truly green, but it's not clear that that's the case. Second, the water companies state that no nappies should be flushed into the sewage system, so that means they must be disposed of in some other way. Usually this will be by incineration or burial - the former produces greenhouse gases and the latter has the same problems of biodegradability as stated above, namely that the anaerobic conditions in landfill sites hinder successful rotting. That only leaves home composting as a viable alternative...

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