Get money back on your reusable products!

There are a number of ways that councils support families to transition from single-use disposable products to reusable products and reduce associated landfill and costs. An increasing number of councils are choosing to offer a cloth nappy rebate as well as education programs to new parents.

Many Councils are rewarding those who use reusable products with rebates! 
The start of the new financial year is a great time to check whether your local council offers any reimbursement for reusable products. At this time of year they have often refreshed their funding so it is the perfect time to check. 

Helping families and individuals to reduce their waste by switching to reusable products benefits your council as they reduce their waste management costs. Many councils around Australia offer rebates for reusable sanitary products and reusable cloth nappies

Why is waste a problem?

• Once in landfill one disposable nappy takes 500 years to decompose and each child will use, on average, 6,500 nappies before they use the toilet consistently. Those 6,500 nappies will generate one tonne of plastic waste. 
• Single use period products are up to 90% plastic and take up to 800 years to decompose once discarded.
• Used period products are one of the top polluters of our oceans. On average around 5 products for every 100m of beach are found discarded.

Check out our handy nappy calculators to work out how many nappies you can prevent from going to landfill with each child.

How can reusable products save me money?
The upfront cost of reusable products may seem daunting at first. The long term benefits will see you saving money and reducing your environmental footprint. You don’t need to take an all or nothing approach with reusable products. Even one use of a reusable product prevents one item from going to waste and prevents one less item for you to buy. The more you replace and the longer you use them for the bigger the impact you will make. 

Check out our handy nappy calculators to work out how much money you can save with each child: https://designerbums.com.au/pages/nappy-calculators 

How do I apply for my rebate?

If your council is offering a rebate they will require you to purchase the products first. Some councils will offer a fixed rebate amount and others may offer a % up to a certain amount. Once you have made your purchase:

1. Contact our Customer Happiness Team at  info@designerbums.com.au and ask for a tax invoice for your order number.
2. We'll email back a complete tax invoice. 
3. You can then submit the tax invoice to your council and claim your rebate

Which councils offer rebates?

Compiling a list of councils offering rebates for reusable products has been on our radar for a while and is incredibly difficult. Council funding will often be exhausted early in the year, trials are run and removed, and the list is ever changing. 

Here are some of the longer standing cloth nappy rebate programs that we know of. Read List

Let us know at  info@designerbums.com.au if you find that a listed program is no longer available or has run out of funding for the year and we will update our listing.

Can I do anything to support the cause?
If your council is not already offering a rebate or support for switching to reusable products you might want to check out whether there is a petition in your area. Petitions are a great way to show your local council that there is awareness of an issue and to put your support behind it. 

Petitions for Cloth Nappies and Sanitary products can be found here: https://www.change.org/search?q=sanitary+rebate