Today’s parents face a dilemma: cloth or disposable?
Environmentalists say disposable diapers are bad for the environment but those who buy them say convenience outweighs that factor, and that a baby has to be in diapers only for a relatively short time.
Cloth diapers first appeared in the 1800s. Today’s disposables originated in the 1960s with Procter & Gamble’s Pampers—a diaper made of cellulose.
The Real Diaper Association estimates it can take 200 to 500 years for disposable diapers to decompose in landfills. The association estimates that 27.4 billion disposable diapers are used each year in the United States, and more than 92 percent of them end up in landfills.
Cristina Polsgrove, a spokeswoman for Tucson’s Environmental Services department, says the city “does not keep statistics on tonnages of diapers,” but that “diapers and diaper waste in them does not contaminate the groundwater.” She said the city’s landfill, Los Reales, is “designed and operated in compliance with federal regulations to protect the environment from contaminants which may be present in the solid waste stream.”
Let’s take a closer look at the conflict parents face in choosing cloth or disposable diapers:
•To produce a year’s supply of disposable diapers for one baby, more than 300 pounds of wood, 20 pounds of chlorine and 50 pounds of petroleum products are used, according to the Real Diaper Association. Disposable diapers also contain traces of dioxin, a toxic byproduct from the paper-bleaching process. The Environmental Protection Agency considers dioxin one of the most toxic of all carcinogens, and it is banned in most countries, according to the association.
• Disposable diapers also contain sodium polyacrylate, a superabsorbent polymer that turns into a gel-like substance when wet, the association says. It is similar to the substance that increased the risk of toxic shock syndrome in the 1980s.
• Another harmful chemical contained in disposables is tributyltin, a toxic pollutant linked to hormonal problems in humans and animals, the association says.
Cloth diapers, however, “have no chemicals in them (and) can be reused or even sold after the baby is grown,” said Charlottes Lasselsberger, owner of the Little Bird Nesting Company, 2924 E. Broadway Blvd.
“Cloth diapers use one-half the amount of water to launder than it does to manufacture disposable ones,” Lasselsberger said, adding that they also put fecal matter where it belongs, in the sewer. “Cloth diapering saves money, babies have a soft fabric next to their skin and mothers avoid trips to the market,” she said.
Cloth diapers are also easier to use these days because instead of pins, they are fastened with snaps and Velcro, said Tonya Scott, whose online company www.greenbabyelephant.com sells them. Scott said she decided to put her three boys in cloth diapers after seeing an ABC TV report that said disposables may cause infertility because of the higher temperatures from the plastic in the diapers.
Parent Lori Hammed-Dow, 36, says it was convenience that made her decide on disposables. After potty-training her 2 1/2-year-old and dealing with “accidents,” she said she cannot imagine using cloth diapers.
However, Carrie L. Beauto, the mother of children 3 1/2 years old and 19 months old, finds cloth diapers better for babies and the environment, and says she has saved money through the ability to reuse them.
Erin Vaughn, a doctoral candidate at the University of Arizona student who has a 2-year-old, says she decided on cloth diapers for a variety of reasons, including less space taken up in landfills and reductions in petrochemical and electricity use, especially when parents dry the cloth diapers on a clothesline.
Consider the facts, then decide: a better environment or more convenience?
This article appears in Feb 7-13, 2013.
I don’t which is worse but cloth diapers also have environmental consequences. First of all, cotton farming is very water intense and also depends on pesticides, fertilizers, and herbsides in its growth. Harvesting, processing, and shipping cotton is also energy intense. I don’t have the stats but its hard to believe that a diaper that will be washed uses less water than a disposable does in its manufacture. Does that include the water used to grow, process, and make cotton cloth? I’d like to see a true side by side of the cost/benefits of each.
I have a great idea, stop breeding, then we can stop worring about this. Im F*cking tired of women bringing kids to nice restaurants or worse sitting at a bar with them. Give us a break, we dont want to hear them.
Another factor to consider (when even having children) is the carbon footprint incurred by the exploding population of the world. If you really want to reduce your carbon footprint then eat plant-based foods (consumption of meat is close to 20% of the excess carbon in our atmosphere), consider adopting instead of giving birth to a child and spay and neuter your pets. A recent Nature report indicated that domestic cats kill about 3.5 billion wild birds and animals per year. They are creating havoc on our wildlife/bird populations.
It’s pretty clear that the writer has an agenda to push. She makes a strong case pointing out the costs associated with disposable diapers but she overlooks the true costs of cloth diapers. The cotton doesn’t just magically appear, refined, woven and ready to go in a diaper bag. There’s resources used to grow, harvest, refine and weave the fibers. There’s resources used to deliver the final product to consumers. With the end users, resources are used to clean and reuse the diapers, and to treat the sewage. Every one of these issues is unaddressed by the writer. If she really wants consumers to make the decision to use cloth diapers, she should present ALL of the facts and educate us instead of shaming us. Without an objective and all inclusive review of all the stats, this is just propaganda. I’m a new parent and I would truly appreciate it if someone could present a good case for taking on all the extra work and inconvenience that comes with cloth diapers. This didn’t do it.
My daughter had sensitive skin and was allergic to all disposable diapers– except the cheapest generic ones. We used cloth diapers at home and paper when she went to daycare. Even using cloth sometimes would help.