Cloth Nappy and Reusable Sanitary Product Rebate petition to my Council

31 March 2021
Council for a Cloth Nappy and Reusable Sanitary Product Rebate
Photo by Gavin Green & Hardie Grant Books for Waste Not: Make a big difference by throwing away less - buy here



Update 1: at the bottom of the blog - 2 Sept 2021

Update 2: at the bottom of the blog - 30 Jan 2022

Update 3: at the bottom of the blog - 7 Nov 2022 




Last year I discovered the UK was considering a Nappies (Environmental Standards) Bill to help promote reusables nappies. The Bill included a rebate to make the switch accessible, along with a push to stop manufactures of disposable (eco or not) from making claims that aren't true. The conversation is ongoing in the UK and you can read about here and here.

I began researching cloth nappy rebates and found there weren't that many available compared to the UK. They have over 40 programs, while we have 18 (when I first wrote this blog post a month ago it was only 11). After many emails it seemed the best place to prove there was interest in rebates from the community was for more Local Government's (our Councils) to roll out rebate schemes. In the UK local Councils also run the rebate programs. So, I decided to start with mine, Moonee Valley City Council. After sharing my intentions on social media many readers showed enthusiasm to pitch similarly to their own Councils and I promised a blog post on what I have done so far to help you get started. I hope you find it useful.

But first, what is a Cloth Nappy and Reusable Sanitary Product Rebate?

A household can receive up to fifty percent of the purchase back on new and secondhand items with proof of receipt at limit of $150. These reusable items can include:
  • Cloth nappies (all ages)
  • Swim nappies
  • Nappy liners
  • Cloth wipes
  • Wet bags
  • Nursing breast pads
  • Cloth menstrual and incontinence pads
  • Menstrual cups
  • Period underwear
  • Period wet bags
Rebates are usually provided alongside education programs too. 


These councils provide rebates in Australia:
  • City of Casey (VIC)
  • Wyndham City Council (VIC)
  • Cardinia Shire (VIC)
  • Mornington Peninsula  Shire (VIC)
  • City of Wodonga (VIC)
  • Shires of Indigo (VIC)
  • City of Whittlesea (VIC) 
  • Hobsons Bay City Council (VIC)
  • City of Ballarat (VIC)
  • Macedon Ranges Shire Council (VIC)

  • City of Parramatta (NSW)
  • Council of Federation (NSW)
  • Greater Hume Shire Council (NSW)
  • Shire of Towong (NSW)
  • Albury City Council (NSW)
  • Sutherland Shire (NSW)
  • Blacktown (NSW)

  • Brisbane City Council (QLD)
  • Logan City Council (QLD)
  • Livingston Council (QLD)

  • City of Holdfast Bay (SA)

  • Shire of Augusta Margaret River (WA)
  • City of Cockburn (WA)
  • City of Melville (WA)
  • City of Bayswater (WA)
  • Town of Bassendean (WA)
  • Tow of Victoria Park (WA)
  • City of Armadale (WA)
  • Town of East Fremantle (WA)
  • City of Fremantle (WA)
  • Town of Vincent (WA)

  • City of Hobart (TAS)

I'll continue to add Councils as they provide programs :)

Why should our Government provide this? There are a couple of reasons...

A rebate will essentially provide accessibility for those unable to afford reusables, help normalise these products, provide a place for eduction and start conversations, and reward those wanting to reduce their waste.

Australian is one of the highest generators of waste in the world and all levels of government are aware behaviours, process, and products need to change to help reduce what we send to landfill. And it's happening, albeit a little slowly.

Most of our local Councils around Australia, the ones in charge of collecting residential waste and recycling, are focusing on getting organics out the landfill by introducing FOGO collections and tackling food waste. Rightly so, food waste can make up to 40% of our bins a home. As more FOGO rolls out and the system is working (ie, limited contaminates) the landfill bin collections will inevitably be moved to fortnightly.

After food, the next organic waste to land in or bins is the contents inside nappies and sanitary items. When any Council has announced their plan for fortnightly landfill pick up the most common complaint is disposable nappies. You can read what residents said in Golden Plains Shire Council and City of Penrith recently. It's a fair concern for those using disposable and biodegradable nappies.

Disposable nappies (including biodegradable nappies because they are single-use and also go to landfill unless they are collected separately) make up 4% of our landfills in Australia. With a child going through 6,000-7,000 nappies before toilet training, that is a significant amount of waste being picked up each week. Then there is the fact most disposals nappies require resources like oil to make the plastic, old growth forests for the inner lining, chemicals used inside to create that absorbency, plastic packaging, shipping of materials to factories for processing, and of course transport to stores AND the diesel fuelled garbage trucks to take it all away. Oh, and the energy needed to travel to the store to buy the product each time. Now think about all of this then apply it to menstrual and sanitary products.

That's not to say cloth nappies don't have an environmental impact, they do. But compared to disposables it's far less and will outperform when sold on for a second use or in the case of menstrual and sanitary products used for three-five years. The secondhand nappy market in Australia is HUGE, you'll find it mainly on Facebook through specific groups, marketplaces, and Gumtree.

On top of nappies being a huge part of our landfill, they are also in the top three contaminates in our recycling bins. I have heard from those in the recycling industry its getting worse and might be to do with the flashy words like 'Eco-friendly' or 'Recyclable' or “Biodegradable” are put on boxes and the everyday person assumes all eco things go into the recycling bin.

Encouraging the use of reusables, like cloth nappies and sanitary products, will ultimately save Councils money that could go back into health and wellbeing programs

According to Real Nappies for London, nine Local Councils in London collectively saved over £320k in waste costs in four years from the cloth nappy rebates they offered. I don't have data for Councils in Australia as many are looking at ways to track this sufficiently. 

Since nappy and sanitary product waste is big in volume, providing residents a reward has its merits especially when those products, say cloth nappies are passed onto someone else. For someone like me who actively tries to throw nothing into my landfill bin (or recycling!) my efforts are not rewarded and I still have to pay the rates for a service I use rarely.

A rebate is not a demand for all parents to use cloth nappies or people to buy cloth pads

I was a parent that went back to work full time when my child was three months, and I understand how exhausting parenting can be. I would be lying if disposables weren't appealing on some of those days. And truthfully it was my husband that did a lot of it and some of us don't have that extra help. Plus there are a group of other reasons why reusables, whether it's nappies or sanitary products, are not going to be suitable for everyone. Peoples ability could limit use, mental health, access to washing machines. This isn't a campaign to force these swaps onto everyone. And i'll never judge someone for not choosing reusables. 

A parent for example could find out through their Maternal Health meetings (run by Councils) or via another parent that their local Council provides a rebate...they might not take it up, BUT could encourage the parent or caregiver to research other ways to reduce their footprint like a joining a Toy Library, shopping secondhand, taking their own produce bags, volunteering for Landcare. It's all connected.

Here are steps to get started on your local campaign:

1. Start a petition

I created my petition for my own Council on change.org - http://chng.it/7YyS2dYc

Most Councils prefer physical petitions as it's easier to track those signing are actually from local residents. But because of Covid I decided to go with an electronic option. The petition was shared in local facebook groups and my own page. You can use parts of my petition to make your own.

**My petition is not one addressed to all Councils. If you want a rebate for your Council, then someone from your area needs to start one. I can't on your behalf since I don't live in your municipality. 

Below are a list of petitions in Australia:







Paula McIntosh, the Sustainability Leader of Melbourne Girls College has also started a petition asking for free reusable sanitary products in schools. Show your support for Paula's campaign by following on Facebook, facebook.com/EcoFriendlyPeriods4VicSchools.

2. Letter to Councillors signed by multiple residents

An option outside of the petition or to run alongside is to create a letter signed by multiple residents to help strengthen the cause. This could be a group of friends or reaching out to likeminded residents in a Facebook group.

3. Start talking to your Council

Now you've started your petition or sent your group letter (or both!) it's time to find a Councillor you believe will help your cause. If you are not familiar with your local Councillors go to their social media, read their bios on the Council website, or ask in a eco Facebook group or parents group who they think would be an ally. If you have one aligned with sustainability it will be easier. Send them an email telling them your plan to start a petition and if they would like to submit the petition for you once its completed. When I did this my local Councillor suggested I give a presentation to all Councillors at a Public Forum.

4. A Public Forum presentation

This is an opportunity to put together a brief powerpoint (or not) and tell them why you believe Council should act on this. It's mainly an opportunity to educate. I only had three-five minutes to talk and shared four slides sharing what is a rebate program, why reusables are better for the environment, what will Council get out of it and what's in it for residents. 

Don't be nervous, Councillors are regular people. If you would like to see my presentation msg me and I'll pass it on.



The Councils below would be worth campaigning as they have been actively researching rebate programs and/or are running cloth nappy and menstrual product education seminars recently:
  • Yarra Ranges Shire Council (VIC)
  • Knox City Council (VIC)
  • Greater Dandenong Council (VIC)
  • Frankston City Council (VIC)
  • Maribrynong City Council (VIC)
  • Boroondara and the Councils (VIC)
  • Mildura Rural City Council (VIC)
  • Shire of Indigo (VIC)
  • Shire of Towong (VIC)
  • City of, Wodonga (VIC)
  • City of Albury (NSW)
  • Greater Hume Shire (NSW)
  • Shire of Federation (NSW)
  • Penrith City Council (NSW)

Campaigns can be a slow game, sometimes. At the moment I'm going to continue sharing my petition in local groups, then in a couple of months ask a Councillor to present it. Since my Council is more conservative they might turn this down. That's the risk of fighting for something you believe in, it can get turned down. I do believe in planting seeds and I know the collective action can work. Councils talk to each other, they are often part of region based groups within their States. If you do start your own petition or contact your Council, let me know via social media (for some reason my comments don't work anymore on my blog??) so I can add it to this blog post and share with others. There is power in numbers. 

While this blog post is directed at Aussies, I'd love to know if anyone from anywhere else has a go too. 

Good luck :)

I'd like to thank City of Casey for providing so much help in my own research and understanding for this topic. Thank you!!!


Update 1: 2 Sept 2021

A lot has happened since I wrote this blog post earlier in the year. We were featured in The Age, ten more petitions have been started by community members around Australia, over twelve Victorian Councils have applied for funding to start researching cloth nappy and reusable sanitary rebates in their local government areas. Members of Cloth Nappy groups on facebook have been sharing their conversations with local Councils too to help to carry the message.

I made a formal budget submission at the start of May to my local Council – Moonee Valley. This submission was basically asking Council to include the cloth nappy and reusable sanitary rebate in the 2021/22 budget that would be handed down later in the year. I provided a breakdown of how much an annual rebate program would cost Moonee Valley City Council alongside a link to my petition. Thank you to several enthusiastic Councils for helping me figure out costings. I had already presented at a Public Forum to all Councillors in March on the topic too.

In July I received a reply from the Strategy & Planning Department of Moonee Valley City Council stating my submission had been declined in this years budget BUT a cloth nappy and reusable sanitary product rebate would be considered for next year should the Council be successful in gaining funding from the Recycling Victoria Council Fund for a feasibility study with other councils to provide evidence based research that a rebate would work.

My unsuccessful bid was disappointing BUT I'm not without hope that Moonee Valley and other Councils around Victoria (and Australia) will have implemented a cloth nappy and reusable sanitary product rebate. After-all, my work to get a ban on plastic bags in Victoria was declined but then became a reality not long after the petition had been submitted and fobbed off. The thing with environmental campaigns is they might not work, that's just a fact. But what they do achieve is conversation within institutions and amongst the general public. So don't give up hope if you are reading this – the conversations we start today with our campaigns can blossom into meaningful change in the future.

While there is overwhelming proof from other Councils in Australia and abroad these style of rebates work, I do understand the process some Councils need to adhere too. I will consider resubmiting for the budget next year and hopefully have success.

If anyone would like to see a copy of my formal budget submission let me know and I'll pass it on.


Update 2: 30 Jan 2022

Right 12 Victorian Councils (and anyone outside those Council areas in Victoria) are asking for members of the community to share their thoughts and experiences with cloth nappies. Parents/carers who have/have had children in nappies (single-use or reusable) in the last 5 years can go to the link below and fill out the survey. Deadline is 21 Feb.

Thank you to everyone that started their own petition, wrote emails, made phone calls, and engaged in community conversations across Australia. There are 30 petitions in every State/Territory active right now. Two new Councils in WA and VIC have added rebates to their programs!

Your feedback will help the participating Councils to create the best rebate and education program…perhaps set in motion a State wide program?

*My original submission included reusable sanitary products too. Feel free to pop that into your feedback to nudge Council we’d like them in the survey.


Update 3: 7 Nov 2022
The reusable nappy feasibility study led by Monash Council with 12 other Melbourne Councils to research and understand a best practice reusable nappy program has been completed and was released last month. The report and an Executive Summary documents can be found via this link > https://shape.monash.vic.gov.au/reusable-nappies

The report recommended:
  • "A joint Communications Strategy and Campaign, as first priority" [and]
  • "Opportunities for community members to experience and connect over reusable nappies, as a second and related priority" (source)
There were a few areas of the report I could pick apart (like researching a program in the UK for comparison that doesn't have solid feedback but missing some of the longest running ones that do?!). But it would make this blog post longer than it is. Overall it's a very insightful report. Here's hoping all 12 Melbourne Councils take on the recommendations and deliver increased communication and education on cloth nappy options, specifically targeting parents before they have children, plus working alongside the hospitals, State Government, and their Departments aligned with maternal heath and pre-birth education as another avenue to present options. 

In a positive announcement made last month Melbourne LGA Knox City Council are leading a study with seven Victorian Councils to research and how to best set up a reusable sanitary and incontinence program. Like nappies, sanitary products including incontinence items, are a growing waste source. Look out for a community consultation survey similar to the cloth nappy one conducted earlier this year. 



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