Nappy Review: Moltex (Pure and Nature)

Next up for our eco baby product reviews we have Moltex. Eco nappies are what inspired us to start Planet Hugs and this review covers everything you need to know as an eco-minded parent. Moltex re-branded as ‘Moltex – Pure and Nature’ in 2019 and was formerly known as ‘Moltex – Nature No.1’. You’ll still find the Nature No.1 stock at most online shops such as Amazon . Remember that you can check star ratings for each eco category; Plastics, Carbon Footprint and Recycling plus Quality and Cost as well as overall summary

By the nature of companies pushing for an eco image, many eco-friendly nappy brands aim to be environmentally friendly in other ways as well as having ethical advantages and being better for your baby’s health.

Our in-depth review covers everything eco-friendly plus lots more and our final review rating for Moltex is:

Moltex left us with mixed feelings, but overall they did well. On the one hand, the carbon impact is really great in terms of both factory clean energy and transport footprint. The plastic content is actually quite low, but not a market leader. No chemical ‘nasties’ is a positive, but more could be done on packaging. Leak risk was noted and cost was an issue.

Here’s a breakdown of the rating summary in terms of Quality, Plastic, Climate, Recycling and Cost:

Quality:	[usr img=”cOwls-60.png” 4 size=60 text=”true” addtext=”performance / quality”]
Plastics:	[usr img=”cdrop-60.png” 3 size=60 text=”true” addtext=”plastic waste / pollution”]
Climate:	[usr img=”cFlores.png” 4.5 size=60 text=”true” addtext=”carbon / climate impact”]
Recycling:	[usr img=”crecy-60.png” 2 size=60 text=”true” addtext=”recycling / packaging”]
Costs:	[usr img=”ccash-60.png” 1 size=60 text=”true” addtext=”piece price”]

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Sensitive on skin – No chemicals

Durability – Great sticky tabs

Health – Allergy certified

Leakage – Susceptible to explosive poo

Comfort – No elastic waistband

Features – No wetness indicator

On performance we got mixed results, but generally pretty good. To be honest, you usually expect a compromise somewhere and that’s what we saw. They are great on skin sensitivity, as we’ll discuss below. The look and feel is a little cheap, had a glossy / shiny look and although they are soft to the touch on the outside, the inside surface is a bit stiff. Despite this the flexibility around the legs is good, although the leg elastic is not so strong and the top back panel features no elastic. These two points will affect how well they fit, both on the comfort side, but more so as a risk of leakage from the more explosive poos due to possible gaps. On durability the sticky tabs are great; there is a textured effect on the front waistband and the tabs are very sticky meaning a good hold when pulled.

On the down side, we see the absence of elastic in the waistband as a problem. The wings with sticky tabs do have stretchy elastic, but where the top nappies usually have flexibility in the back waistband as well, Moltex does not and the waistband is doesn’t move much. Disposable nappies are not expected to survive for weeks or even days; they’re single use by definition. Still, you need to think of it like this – it is so important that the product does its job; that is survives the night. If not, you grab another and one is wasted. Even if only 1 in 10 break, that’s 10% wasted, which is around 10 nappies a month for babies. The landfill builds up and the carbon footprint is amplified. The nappy has to be tough enough to keep down this waste.

Skin Sensitivity:

Moltex is a another eco nappy that goes for the baby health angle and it succeeds. They are 100% chemical free, use natural ingredients wherever possible, including 15% organic cotton in the outer layer and an inner layer using sustainably sourced corn and sugar cane. This helps on nappy rash and Moltex scored top marks here.

The no nasties approach is backed by being allergy certified and includes:

• No Latex
• No Lotion
• No Fragrances

Overall the quality is good. Although there are some negatives on performance, the scoring weighting means that Moltex just edged past 3.5 stars on our detailed judgement matrix, landing at 4 stars:

Quality: [usr img=”cOwls-60.png” 4 size=60 text=”true”]

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Plastics – Low plastic content (but not market leader)

Green Production – Strong certified processes

Sustainable Resources – Corn & sugar cane

Transport Carbon – ‘Low’ impact from Germany

Single use – it’s a disposable nappy

Packaging – Non biodegradable bags

The inner layer is made from 100% natural materials including sugar cane and sustainably harvested corn. The outer layers appear to contain 15% organic cotton. Cotton as a raw ingredient itself goes through intensive processing and is not a preferred option, but it beats synthetics by a long way. Those materials are all biodegradable and gave a good score.

Biodegradable:

Standard mainstream plastic nappies (e.g. Pampers / Huggies) typically take more than 500 hundred years to break down to any significant levels. Overall the Moltex nappies contain around 44% biobased materials meaning, their ability to biodegrade is good for a disposable nappy.

However, whenever we are talking about disposable eco nappies it is important to remember that no product out there is 100% compostable or even as close as we would really like. The best green nappies are up to 50% or 60% biodegradable materials, so you can see that Moltex is good, but not the best.

We’ve started our own qualitative composting tests across all eco nappies and we’ll post results over time.

Note that the Moltex packaging bags do have their own OK BIOBASED star rating – read more in the packaging section here.

But how does this rate against other nappies?

Moltex is a competitor in the market, but could be seen as being in the chasing pack with Beaming Baby and Kit and Kin behind a front two of Naty and Eco Boom.

Compared to the best eco nappies out there, Moltex performs well on the green front with low levels of plastic – the graph above is based on Beta Analytic Testing Laboratory Data.

Our behind the scenes rating system takes into account 16 different aspects of what it means to be eco-friendly and 6 of them make up this ‘Plastics / Materials / Content section. The remaining ones include micro-plastic & fibres and impact to the environment of chemicals in products. The nappies appear to pose minimal likelihood of leading to release of micro plastic or plastic fibres into the eco-system. They are primarily made up of natural ingredients with none of the chemical ‘nasties’ some nappies include (see Quality section for more on how they are sensitive on baby’ skin). Remember that the use of natural ingredients also helps minimise the chance of nappy rash and other skin problems.

For eco-friendly materials and minimising the use of plastics, Moltex scored 3 stars, narrowly missing out on 3.5:

Plastics: [usr img=”cdrop-60.png” 3 size=60 text=”true”]

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We assess 6 elements for this section: starting with aspects of manufacture / production and climate impact; here Moltex exceeds all other disposable nappies we have reviewed. They run a number of energy efficiency schemes and have certified processes and boast the EU Ecolabel award.

Manufacturing uses 100% green energy and they put strong emphasis on ensuring an ethical and responsible ‘cradle to grave’ life-cycle for the products. Raw materials come from ethical, socially acceptable and responsible sources. The EU Ecolabel award means the nappies meet the highest environmental standards throughout their life-cycle; from raw material extraction through to production, distribution and disposal.

We were also very pleased to learnt hat Moltex runs a policy of ZERO production waste, meaning no production waste ends up on landfill.

In terms of carbon footprint due to transport of the nappies, Moltex are good, simply because we measure impact from source to us and Moltex are made in Germany. We judge against 5 bands of carbon and the only way to score even better here would be to make the product locally in the UK. The tool we use is the official carbon footprint calculator from DHL and with the basic assumptions on container loads, nappy weights and transport routes, Moltex scored within the band of 2-5g CO2 per nappy on transport.

So, a really strong category for Moltex – almost flawless at 4.5 stars:

Climate: [usr img=”cFlores.png” 4.5 size=60 text=”true”]

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Moltex are loud advocates for promoting more effective recycling methods, stating “the goal should be to collect and recycle the outer packaging. When biodegradable plastic ends up in recycling, there is a risk it will degrade the quality of the recycled material. That is why our bag is bio-based but not biodegradable.”.

There is a huge problem with this logic: domestic recycling of PE plastic is mixed at best, at least in the UK. The actual truth is that most PE bags and wraps can, physically, be recycled by the equipment at recycling centres. The problem tends to lie with their ability to sort hard from ‘soft’ plastics. The result being that for most domestic recycling collection areas, you cannot recycle PE bags. You can, however, take them to certain collection points, e.g. big supermarkets (see the British Plastics Federation guidelines for more info). In Germany, where Moltex are made, the recycling situation is better (ref. BPF link) and we can understand their decision to take the logic they do.

Unfortunately, for the majority of mums and dads in the UK, this means they go in the general waste bin and end up on landfill. Consumer behaviour is changing and recycling centres will improve to be able to sort much better, but for now we have to score based on the real life situation.

The combination of issues with the plastic bags and disposable nappies being ‘single-use’ products (we always judge harshly in this way for disposables), Moltex scores poorly in this section at 2 stars.

Recycling: [usr img=”crecy-60.png” 2 size=60 text=”true”]

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The best eco-friendly products tend to carry a premium price and Moltex is certainly the most expensive eco disposable nappy in its class. The good performance quality and strong environmental and ethical credentials clearly come at a cost, with Moltex standing well above the other main leaders such as Beaming Baby, Kit and Kin, Eco Boom and Naty.

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We would not expect them to compete on cost with inferior plastic nappies such as Pampers, but we treat pricing seriously. We push to promote a move to a culture of green consumerism and the wider public is not likely to buy into this ethos if it remains beyond their budget.

The cost analysis is based on our in depth research across the important comparison brands through various shops and suppliers. Of course, if you shop around you’ll find the prices vary over time and through offers but for complete transparency we’ve added the full data used to make the graphs, along with other data comparisons, to the Gallery photos at the end of the review.

The star ranking for price is split into 5 piece-cost bands and Moltex scores the lowest 1 star rating:

Cost: [usr img=”ccash-60.png” 1 size=60 text=”true”]

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Video Review

To accompany the main review we add a hands-on demo pulling out some of the key points and showing you how it all looks & feels; the nappies, the packaging and handling.

You can find this on our Planet Hugs YouTube channel – remember to click subscribe and any feedback you can leave is so appreciated.

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Product Description

Nappy Features:

The Moltex nappies have some of the expected features such as absorbent core and strong, elastic sticky tabs but are missing a flexible elastic waist band and have no wetness indicator (as detailed in the quality review section).

They feature a single band of coloured print at the top on the front; we had the older version (Nature No.1) with snoozing bears on a pink and green backdrop. Some sources suggest the print is a negative due to extra resources (ink) and an additional process in manufacturing (more energy use), but this topic is not clear and we do not mark them down on this basis.

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Certifications

Quality Standards

Hautfriendlich (skin friendly):

This is simply the German for Skin Friendly and states that the product was testing according to dermatological, clinical methods.  Promotional material also states that they are allergy certified.

FSC Mix:

This refers to the raw materials being sustainably sourced and relates to the pulp material.  FSC (Forest Stewardship Council) awards certain factories and brands based on their management systems meeting strict guidelines, particularly related to supplier selection and control.

EU Ecolabel (DK/047/002):

This certification category covers absorbent hygiene products such as nappies and ensures that the product meets criteria that guarantee:

     ✓ Reduced impacts from consumption of resources
     ✓ Restricted use of hazardous substances
     ✓ Satisfaction of performance and quality tests

OK Biobased – S0803:

As reported in the packaging section, the OK Biobased award is globally recognised and, in this case, covers the plastic bag not the nappy product.  Moltex bags score 2 stars, meaning that 40-60% of the bag material is biobased material.  OK biobased is an independent third-party certification system implemented by TÜV AUSTRIA.  Based on test results, it certifies the percentage of renewable raw material in a product by awarding it one to four stars.

Standard 100 by OEKO-TEX®:

This standard relates to testing products for harmful substances.  During the tests numerous regulated and non-regulated substances, which may be harmful to human health, are taken into consideration. Babies require special protection.  Accordingly, in OEKO-TEX® ‘Product class I’, baby care items are held to the strictest criteria, in line with sensitive baby skin.   

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Conclusions

After extensive user trials, background research and study of the products and specifications we can conclude that Moltex do offer a good option for eco-friendly disposable nappies, but with some drawbacks that place it behind the best eco options. The focus by Moltex on environmental impact due to manufacturing and the complete product life-cycle is truly refreshing and bold with Moltex being a leader on this front. It uses renewable energy in production, runs a zero landfill waste policy and has a certified process for controlling sourcing of raw materials through the supply chain.

Our reviews are geared to checking environmental credentials overall, however, and Moltex did not score too well on the packaging and recycling, although this area is likely to shift over time as society improves its capabilities in recycling on a local level. Further to straight forward green aspects, a fully eco nappy also needs to be fit for purpose in performance. Any waste due to breakage will be detrimental on eco impact. Moltex quality is very good, but not perfect. We see a weakness in the design around the lack of flexible waistband and also a chance of leaks in the more extreme situations, due to that waistband and also, possibly, around the legs. Still, Moltex is superb on skin sensitivity with minimal risk of nappy rash.

Lastly, we’ll mention cost. Of course, we expect a premium eco product to cost more your standard plastic Pampers / Huggies, but Moltex does seem to be priced too high. In terms of piece-cost Moltex is higher than competitors and, in some sizes, significantly so. That’s a real shame. We promote eco products for babies and one way to reach the wider public is to make those products affordable. A tricky task, but ultimately the cost holds Moltex back and leaves it behind other brands for our overall Green Card ranking.

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Discussion

There’s no ignoring the fact that re-usable products are nearly always better for the environment than single-use. It’s also true that, in a busy, modern world, parents of babies and toddlers are looking for a convenient nappy option that is better and greener than the ‘standard’ option.

If they can choose a nappy with a significantly improved eco impact as a green, conscientious parent, then we need to be studying the options in detail to make sure the different products and their credentials are really understood. Besides, a lot of the mums and dads that we speak with do use re-usable cloth nappies day to day when in their normal routines, around the house, at toddler groups and with access to the washer. However, they also seek to have disposables in stock, whether for certain outings (picnic, walk in the forest, long car journey, family holiday etc) and they want to minimise eco impact. For those people, biodegradable nappies are the solution.

For many other Mums and Dads they have consciously made the decision to go disposable but want to reduce their environmental impact as much a possible. Moltex is not our top choice, but it is a good one. Moltex does contain more than half plastic, true, but a large proportion is made up of natural, organic material that will compost down in a relatively short space of time. What’s more, that bio content is from sustainable sources. These are big ticks for any eco-minded parent.

If you’re stuck and cannot decide which one to go with, we recommend you read our other detailed reviews on eco disposable nappies and, if you’re still unsure, it can be nice and easy to order sample packs of the best options, give them a try and then go with your preferred product.

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Gallery

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