Local mum, Emma Avery, has literally made it her business to protect the environment from unnecessary landfill whilst saving local mothers thousands of dollars – and the good word has spread!
Having only started Cloth Baby this year, Ms Avery is humbled to receive two nominations in the nationally recognised AusMumpreneur Awards – the People’s Choice Leadership Award and Sustainability Award. Winners to be announced next month.
“I feel pretty chuffed to be nominated but especially excited to be recognised in the space of sustainability,” Ms Avery said.
“Sustainability projects and consulting is my professional background.”
Cloth Baby is an enterprise aimed at making it easy for parents to use cloth nappies successfully by providing an online retail store and pop up demonstrations throughout the region.
“With a new parent coming into this space they may not know what a modern cloth nappy even looks like, especially if they’re aware of cloth nappies from ten years ago – the old terry-toweling squares, which they’re not at all like now,” Ms Avery said.
“I find they perform better than disposable nappies in terms of absorbency and fit. They’re also very stylish – the companies bring out new prints all the time.”
It seems another important factor are the savings, both financially and environmentally. New parents may be surprised to learn the average baby will go through 6,000 nappy changes before toilet training, equating to approximately $3,000 in cost for disposable nappies over this time.
“A new set of cloth nappies will cost $800 upfront,” Ms Avery said.
“If you can afford it, it’s a massive saving, plus if you use cloth nappies for your next child you’re starting at $0. Even with the cost of washing – water, power and soap, it might take you to $1,000.”
Another noticeable benefit for families is simply not having a bin full of nappies for a fortnight and of course, the nappies have to go somewhere.
“Choosing to use disposable nappies means 6,000 disposable nappies will find their way into landfill, per baby,” the Wangaratta mother said.
For councils, the benefit of parents choosing to use cloth nappies over disposable could be huge, with some councils around the country already jumping on the bandwagon and providing incentives for parents to choose cloth.
“I’ve been having conversations with some local councils and while it’s something they haven’t grasped yet, I think it will happen,” Ms Avery said.
“Councils pay for every tonne of waste that goes to their landfill, so to avoid that would create massive cost savings, plus it would make their landfill last longer.”
Details on the AusMumpreneur Awards: https://ausmumpreneur.com/
Border Cafe will also profile another local nomination in the AusMumpreneur Awards next week, Manager Director of GO Local Media, Bernadette Torresan.
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