Warning issued to parents over new tax on essential baby item

Mums and dads face a tax on disposable nappies after government plans emerged for parents to be urged to switch to reusable ones.

Parents will be enticed not to use nappies which inevitably end up in landfill.

But there are critics to the proposals, with some branding the reusable ones “time consuming”.

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A Whitehall source involved in the policy told the Daily Mail: “The next single-use plastic item we are looking at is nappies.

“But you couldn’t ban them – that would be too tough for parents. It would need to take some form of a tax.”

Justine Roberts, from the parenting forum Mumsnet, said: “It would be good for parents to have affordable options that are greener.

“Ideally, parents do want to make greener choices, but it’s hard when they are busy and finances are stretched and they’re struggling to find a moment for themselves.

“Asking parents, and, frankly, it’s usually mothers, for the commitment needed for reusables is a big ask.

“No one on Mumsnet doubts the need to take action for the environment, but consumers need viable options.”

Allison Ogden-Newton of Keep Britain Tidy said: “People still aren’t aware of this. We estimate there are a million people trying to recycle disposable nappies and causing huge contamination.

“This is an iceberg of contaminated material going to landfill and we’re losing whole truckloads of recyclable waste.

“The first thing we need to do is to educate consumers that these products are not recyclable and need to be disposed of in household waste.”

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