Wipe Out!

If you have babies, you need to wipe their bums... so what do you use? In days gone by, I guess they used cotton wool and cream... I think I remember my mum using that... but I worry about what's in the sorbolene sometimes... and the cotton. It can often be a clumsy and messy clean-up, too.

Bits of old rag? Well, yes, but we're on tank water and the amount of water it takes to wash these is exorbitant. Before I had my first child, I was determined not to use disposable wipes, more because of the chemicals in/on them. I sat down and studiously cut a flannelette sheet into little squares, and my sister-in-law did the same, and edged all hers on the sewing machine. I still use them, four years later... only... not all the time. [My girls are pretty much toilet-trained now, so this is less of an issue for me now than when I first wrote about it ten months ago].

You see, the amount of labour to scrub poo off these, soak in nappy soak, wash, peg out all the little bummy wipes, unpeg, fold, store. Well, it's too much. (Not to mention our lack of water, which I already have!)

So I use commercial wipes. The invention of the pop-up wet wipe has truly revolutionised nappy change time all over the world (well, the developed world!).

There are some very classy ones on the market that are organic and bamboo etc. You can get them with vitamin E, aloe vera .. unscented...  shea butter... phew! But they can often cost a fortune, so I did used to buy the cheaper ones. But then I got on my serious anti-plastic drive and decided to do some research (not to mention my babe getting dermatitis from cheap wipes) and I'm now committed to plastic-free wipes. Biodegradable and compostable, made from viscose or bamboo usually.

Of course, I suspected wipes had plastic in them but, like many a classic modern consumer, I..  didn't want to know. Fingers in ears.. la la la.


Probably the best wipe around, Wotnots! Pricey though!

I'm guessing a lot of people don't think of these things (like so many things we use these days), as containing plastic. It's confusing as they'll say "do not flush" on them, even the biodegradable ones like this one pictured, but I suspect many people do flush them. It's just a wet tissue, right?  We flush toilet paper, right? That's the non-flushables. But apparently many of the so-called "flushable" wipes contain plastic too.

Well, who cares if people flush them, they get treated at the sewage treatment centre, so that's OK, right? Hmm...Have you heard about the "bus-sized fatberg" in the London sewer pipes? A large contributing factor is people flushing non-disposable wipes. And if you throw them in the bin, they're going to landfill... bunches of pooey plastic that won't break down. Occasionally we have accidentally dropped one (when I wasn't aware of the plastic composition) in our composting toilet. When my partner went to change the chamber (poor guy), we'd have a broken-down, odourless product, a little like potting mix. But not the wipes. No. They'd be white and pure as the day they were made.

Probably the most popular wipe,  Huggies, states its plastic composition plainly on its website.

Q. What are Huggies Baby Wipes made from?

A. A stretchy non-woven fabric called Coform. Coform is made from a combination of microscopic and continuous plastic [my emphasis] fibres and wood pulp (cellulose) fibres that provide gentle care to baby’s skin.

So I thought I'd ask a few other companies what was in their wipes. I filled out an online form at Curash, whose website has a rather vague description of what their wipes were made of. I asked if they contained plastic, to which they replied:

"Curash Baby Wipes do not contain plastic.

Thank you for your email. "

 

Hmmm... I doubted it, so I persisted with my line of enquiry:

 

"Can you tell me what you use in the mix instead of polyester (plastic). I would be interested in putting them in my composting toilet.

 

Is it viscose or bamboo or something like that?"

 

They replied:

 

Unfortunately none of our wipes is suitable for use in a composting toilet.

 

Hmmm... vague, much? I kept at them... I mean, if Huggies, the market leader, can declare what their wipes are made from (as evil as it is) why can't this company?

 

"OK, so they do contain plastic? I want to know the reinforcing material in addition to paper"

 

They replied:

 

Unfortunately I cannot give that information to you as it is proprietary. I can only confirm that they are not suitable for a composting toilet.

 

Proprietary... hmmm... when I hear that word, I tend to get a bit cross. So I wrote back:

 

"That's strange, as Huggies proudly lets the public know what's in their wipes:

 

http://www.huggies.com.au/nappies/wipes/questions#q1

 

I have also emailed a number of other wipes companies in researching the best wipes for my baby and toddler, as well as for our property. All have been most helpful in letting me know what their wipes are made of. Most use some sort of polyester polymer, or if biodegradable, viscose or bamboo.

 

That's why I'm confused about Curash. You tell me there's no plastic in them, but you won't let me, a potential customer know what I'm buying, what I'm wiping my little ones' delicate areas with, and what I'm putting into landfill or onto my garden. Keep me in the dark and hope I buy your products? How can I?

 

Unfortunately, I suspect you've lied to me about the plastic.

 

Proprietary? Doesn't the company have an obligation to reveal ingredients? If I buy an item of clothing, it says cotton/polyester on the tag. You have to reveal all of the chemicals on the wipe, but not what it's made of?

 

Consumers are not children. Let us know what we're buying, please."

 

Well, after that the issue got bumped up to the manager:



I am the Brand Manager on Curash Babycare and have been forwarded your enquiry regarding the make-up of the Curash wipes material.

 

The Curash wipe is a non-woven material containing a blend of a high percentage of natural fibres and a smaller percentage of polyester cloth.  

 

All of our baby wipes are suitable for sensitive skin including newborns.

 

Interesting, hey? They weren't really lying. I knew that. I was just playing the outraged consumer. They were just being wilfully ignorant (la la la). People don't even think of polyester as plastic! Hence the automatic reply of "no plastic". (I know polyester doesn't have to be plastic. But it just about always is).


Pooey plastic at a highway rest stop in NSW.

With another company, I was told they had to put it in: (I won't name them; they're trying on a lot of other fronts):

 

"As our wipes are 30% polyester yes there is some plastic in the polyester component. We use the polyester to give the wipes elasticity as if we just used paper pulp they would tear too easily and your fingers would go straight through them when wiping baby. The paper content of the wipes we use pulp that is secured from sustainable forestry.

 

Hope this answers your question."

 

I replied:

 

" Looks like I'll be looking elsewhere for my baby wipes needs. Polyester IS plastic!

 

Thanks for responding in such a timely fashion."

 

Then something interesting happened. The person who emailed me inadvertently included me in an email she'd forwarded to her boss and five other senior people in the company.

 

Please see response from the query last week re polyester/plastic in our wipes.  Bottom line is unless we had a 100% paper based product we could not please this one person.

 

So I er...  got a bit cross:

 

"I'm not sure if you intended to cc me into this email. In any case, it's not a great feeling being talked about in the third person as "this one person".

 

The mix of the wipe certainly doesn't have to be 100% PAPER - that's an odd conclusion for you to draw. There are other reinforcing additives besides plastic that can be included in the wipe to make them "natural" - ie, biodegradable, compostable and safe

 

I'm not just one person either. There are many more like me. I'm trying my hardest to minimise plastic in my life and my world. With two small children and being on a pretty tight budget, it's a difficult balancing act."

 

then I raved on a little bit about the environment...  as you do ... and got a "sincere" apology:

 

As a  gesture of good will and one concerned Mother to another can I please send you a sample of our *** Baby Wipes for you to trial with the understanding that these wipes do become landfill but if you compare it to the washing of face washers, detergent used, electricity for washing machines etc as per the Nappy comparison you actually come out with an even scenario.  There is no lesser of two evils.  They are actually equal.

Hmm... well, thanks for the apology, the offer and the environmental cost/benefit analysis. I replied:

Thanks, ***, I won't take you up on the offer of the plastic wipes, though. As mentioned, I'm trying to avoid these things at all costs. (I wasn't talking about face washers, water and power use, I was talking about a biodegradable wipe versus a non-biodegradable one, and there clearly is a "lesser of two evils" there).

Depressing, really, on a number of fronts. a) I appeared to have been the fist person who'd queried these companies about their plastic content. b) polyester wasn't even seen as plastic by some and, c) it was assumed my green outrage would be salved by a free pack of plastic wipes. The environmental equivalence having been made between the cost of making one versus the cost of washing cloth... but no thought as to the afterlife of each (la la la). (Similar to disposable nappies, where cloth and disposable have been "found" to have about the same environmental cost... except.. la la la).

I have since found a website with some great cheat sheets, including this one on wipes which has helped a lot.