Bottoms up in uMhlanga diaper challenge
To celebrate Earth Day, The Great Cloth Diaper Change has morphed into a world record to highlight the environmental sustainability.
UMHLANGA -Atholton School’s Broadwood Ground, to be more specific – was the setting for a collective world record attempt on Saturday as 17 moms and their babies took part in the Great Cloth Diaper Guinness World Record attempt.
The current Guinness world record is 8 459 cloth diapers changed at one time at 188 qualifying locations in 18 countries on 6 continents with South Africa among the regular participants.
The event was hosted by Durban North mom, Dominique Bothma. The initiative, besides setting a world record for the number of cloth nappies changed at one time, also highlighted the environmental sustainability of using cloth nappies.
“It takes a disposable nappy 500 years to biodegrade, and the landfills across the world have more than 7.6 billion pounds of disposable nappies filling them. A child can use up to 6 000 nappies by the time they are toilet trained. This event is about raising awareness of the environmental and financial benefits of reusable nappies and to demonstrate they are a viable alternative to disposables for parents who want a choice.
“We had more than 10 babies here today and the event went surprisingly smoothly. This is the first time Durban, and indeed uMhlanga, has held it, and I would have loved more moms and their babies to be here. The importance of today was highlighting the positive effects of using cloth nappies,” enthused Bothma.
