A study has shown what many of us already knew: that when it comes to being green, a little knowledge can be a dangerous thing.
Having heard that taking a bath is wasteful, many well-meaning Brits are taking showers instead. But what some have neglected to find out is that power showers can use up more water than an average bath in just five minutes! Other common mistakes are avoiding contributing to landfill by using reusable nappies, but boil-washing them to keep them clean, which racks up masses of C02. The study, by British Gas new energy, also revealed that while many people have got into the habit of switching gadgets off standby, far fewer have made the switch to low energy lightbulbs.
These errors all point to the need for a simpler approach to green living. With too much conflicting advice, I think it is no wonder people can't see the wood for the trees.
I've seen this conclusion about the nappies before, but they are comparing apples and oranges. Ok, boil washing nappies will rack up tons of CO2 but only if you don't use a renewable resource to power your washing machine. However, there is no cure for piling huge amounts of disposable, non-biodegradable nappies into landfills. There are now disposable biodegradable nappies (although they must have a high CO2 rating too), but shoddy reporting might make fickle people return to non-biodegradable alternatives which has to be worse for the environment.
There is actually no need to boil-wash nappies: 60 degC is generally enough to destroy pathogens and make the nappies look/feel clean.
Then line-dry them, of course. At least we're allowed to do that in this country.