Press release from: Tops Day Nurseries
Tops Day Nurseries based at 1000 Lakeside Business Park in Cosham have recently piloted a ‘Real Nappy Scheme’ in a bid to reduce the amount of disposable nappies and baby wipes being used in day to day practice.
The early years education provider asked parents to stop bringing any nappies or wipes into the setting to allow the staff to trial re-usable nappies along with the environmentally friendly DIY wet wipes the chain introduced in 2018, free of charge.
One-use plastic nappies and wipes are causing the most damage to our environment. Each child at nursery uses around 1000 nappies per year (full-time equivalent) which is costly for parents, and very costly in terms of waste. After just 2 weeks of trialling the pilot, all children under two years old at the nursery are now in reusable nappies.
Laura, Explorer Room Manager at Tops Lakeside said: “Before we began doing the nappy pilot some of our staff and some parents were quite apprehensive of the scheme; parents commenting it would be too much washing for them as well as staff, and staff thinking we would not be able to cope with the additional load of the reusable nappies on top of other daily jobs.
A lot of the issues we thought we might face went away in a matter of days, with the staff being easily able to find a good routine, all of the children are wearing reusable during the day at nursery and 3 are continuing to wear disposable nappies at home. A month ago, only two of these children were wearing reusable nappies and the rest were in disposables. Already this is making a fantastic impact on the environment and the usage of nappies.”
Tops Lakeside have received a lot of positive feedback from their parents since they started their nappy trial and now all of their babies are using reusable nappies.
Laura Cleverly, a parent at Tops Lakeside said “It’s better for the environment, more cost effective in the long run, look more comfortable to wear and you never have to worry about running out of nappies.”
Further praise from Holly Allender, whose 13 month old attends the nursery was shared when she commented said “We think the scheme has been great so far and seems to be working really well!” and Samantha Bradshaw mentioned her experience with her 18 month old taking part in the scheme “I think it’s a great initiative and happy with the trial”.
The trial will continue and will eventually be rolled out to all settings within the Tops Day Nurseries family.
Tops Lakeside are part of an award winning Early Education and Care nursery group, Tops Day Nurseries. Tops Day Nurseries have over 30 nurseries across the South and South West and were the first family of day nurseries in the UK to achieve B-Corporation Certification and Eco-School’s Green Flag award at every setting.
To better support their eco-sustainable ethos and values, Tops Day Nurseries have recently revealed a fresh new identity after a full re-brand. The new colour scheme and logo has been designed by colleagues within the company to reflect sustainability goals, natural environments as well as the early education and care on offer.
To find out more visit www.topsdaynurseries.co.uk