According to UCL, in many countries children’s average toilet training age has increased. In the UK this has risen by 32 per cent, from 28 months in the 1950s to 37 months in the 2000s, leading to a rise in the number of disposable nappies each child uses.
Each year 300,000 disposable nappies are sent to landfill globally, according to the researchers, but they said the reason driving the rising age for toilet training is unclear.
In the UK this is a hot topic for debate among nurseries and schools and the wider public about the large number of children who start school (usually at age 48 months) while still wearing nappies.
The Big Toilet Project is run by the UCL Plastic Waste Innovation Hub, a team of researchers, designers and engineers looking issues of plastic waste.
The first part of the project invites people from around the world to take the Big Toilet Project survey and share their toilet training experiences via the project website. Anyone who is currently toilet training their child can take part.
For the second part, parents are also being asked, if they wish, to complete a toilet training diary, a monthly record of how children’s toilet training is progressing.
Professor Mark Miodownik, lead researcher on the Big Toilet Project from UCL Mechanical Engineering and UCL Plastic Waste Innovation Hub, said, ‘I understand this is a sensitive and difficult issue for many families. I found toilet training my kids very difficult. We are doing this research because there is a potential “win-win-win-win” situation here. Finding effective and safe ways to toilet train children earlier helps the child, helps the parents, reduces costs to the family, and reduces plastic waste.’
The research claims to be the first global initiative that aims to understand people’s practices and techniques for toilet training children, to determine what works best for children, parents, schools, settings and the environment, and the reasons why.
Dr Ayşe Lisa Allison, a behavioural scientist from UCL Plastic Waste Innovation Hub and the UCL Centre for Behaviour Change, said, ‘One of the reasons we are gathering information on toilet training is to understand what kinds of behaviour change might help reduce nappy waste.
‘We all have a role in shaping a caregiving culture and environment that enables less wasteful practices, whether that’s improving acceptance of and access to reusable and recyclable products, or reducing overreliance on nappies by empowering caregivers with the confidence, time, and resources to support toilet training. If it takes a village to raise a child, it takes a village to tackle nappy waste too!’
The data gathered from parents and settings will be combined with a materials systems analysis to explore ways to support parents and children, and cut waste.
Initial results are expected this summer.
- More information is available at https://www.bigtoiletproject.org
