• An estimated 18 billion single-use diapers are thrown in landfills each year.
• Disposables take as many as 500 years to decompose, and commonly contain raw, untreated sewage.
• Disposable diapers make up the third largest source of solid waste in landfills, after newspapers and food and beverage containers.
• The average baby goes through 5,000 diapers, which generates one ton of waste.
There are many studies and debates surrounding reusable versus disposable diapers. While disposable diapers have made some progress in recent years to become less damaging to the environment, they still represent a burden to municipal landfills and continue to deplete natural resources; over 4 million disposable diapers are discarded in Canada per day.
In contrast, the average cloth diaper is used between 100 and 150 times as a diaper, and then retired. Retired cloth diapers are in high demand and have a second lifecycle wherever soft, lint-free rags are needed.
Furthermore, washing cloth diapers at home uses 50 to 70 gallons of water every three days - about the same as a toilet-trained child or adult flushing the toilet five to six times a day. The waste water produced from washing our diapers is benign since we use a neutralizer. While the waste water from the manufacture of the pulp, paper, and plastics used in disposable diapers contains dioxins, solvents, sludge, and heavy metals.
Easy For You
-No rinsing
-No soaking
-No flushing
-No store runs for diaper purchases
-More time for baby and family
Better for Your Baby
Diaper Rash
Cotton is soft on baby's sensitive skin, and is breathable. This ventilation helps evaporate the potentially irritating ammonia that starts to form as soon as a baby wets and the result is far fewer cases of diaper rash for cotton-diapered babies.
-Less Diaper Rash
-No Harsh Chemicals
-Lower Scrotal Temperatures
-Faster Potty Training
Harsh Chemicals in Disposables:
It is important to note that most disposable diapers contain toxic chemicals such as sodium polyacrylate and dioxin. Sodium polyacrylate, used to create maximum absorbency, is the same substance that was withdrawn from tampons many years ago because of an association with Toxic Shock Syndrome. Dioxin has been shown to cause cancer, birth defects, liver damage, and skin diseases. In a typical disposable diaper these chemicals are kept away from baby's skin, but the fact remains that they are harmful chemicals.
Higher Scrotal Temperatures With Disposables:
Furthermore, studies have shown that scrotal temperature, which closely reflects testicular temperature, is increased in boys wearing single-use plastic-lined diapers; increased scrotal temperature may lead to male infertility.
Faster Potty Training With Cotton:
Another benefit to cloth diapers is that it has been shown that babies diapered with cloth generally toilet train a year earlier than babies diapered with single-use diaper
DO CLOTH DIAPERS SEEM TOO EXPENSIVE?
A "disposable" diaper will only cost from 20-36 cents per diaper, and you can pick them up along with your groceries, so how can they really be as expensive as spending several hundred dollars on cloth diapers? Even if it does cost a little bit more for "disposables", isn't easier to spend just a small amount each week?
Sometimes, it can be hard to come up with that much money all at once.
To help you see the real costs of "disposable" diapers, I have used Pampers® "disposable" diapers, at two current price levels - regular price of $14.49 and sale price of $9.99.
The Step One package contains 80 diapers. Your newborn will need about 10-12 diaper changes per day in the first four weeks. In that month's time you have only used about four packages or 320 diapers. For a total cost of $57.96 at regular price, $39.96 at sale price.
Well, that's not too bad, just pocket-change . . . right?
But the Step Two package only contains 68 diapers. Your baby will need about 8-10 diaper changes a day from one to five months of age. So you now only need to bring home just over 3 packages per month. But that's a total of 870 diapers for just four months. For a total cost of $185.39 at regular price, $127.81 at sale price.
O.K., it's getting a little more expensive, but your time is valuable . . . right?
If you are lucky, your baby will still fit into Step Two diapers for another few months. But your baby will still need about 8 changes a day from five to nine months. That's another 870 diapers for the next four months or so. For a total cost of $185.39 at regular price, $127.81 at sale price.
But cloth diapers are a lot more work . . . aren't they????
The Step Three package contains only 56 diapers. Your 9-12 month baby still needs about 8 diaper changes a day. So add on 13 more packages or 728 diapers for three months. For a total cost of $188.37 at regular price, $129.87 at sale price. Ouch! This is really adding up . . . isn't it!?
So in just your baby's first year alone, you will have lugged home about 31 Jumbo-sized packages or 2,788 diapers. For a total outlay from your pocket of $617.11 at regular price, $425.45 even at sale prices!
Time to make sure you are shopping for those sale prices . . . huh!?
Of course, it does get better once your baby is over a year old . . . right?
The Step Four package only contains 48 diapers, but your 12-18 month baby will need just 6 diaper changes a day. That's about 23 packages or 1,104 diapers for six months. For a total cost of $333.27 at regular price, $229.77 at sale price.
Wait a minute . . . how much did you say cloth diapers would cost!?
After this long, why bother switching to cloth? Your toddler now only needs about 5 diaper changes per day. That's just 154 diapers a month. Well, from ages 18-30 months that would be 42 packages or 1,848 diapers, because the Step Five package contains only 44 diapers! For another year's cost of $608.58 at regular price, $419.58 even at sale price.
But this is costing you almost as much as your baby's first year!?
Will this child EVER get toilet-trained!?!?!
If the price of "disposable" diapers does not increase before your child is finally toilet-trained (ha-ha!), two and a half years of diapering is going to cost you over $1,558.96! Why, even at sale prices, it is still going to cost you over $1,074.80! And that's all before adding in any taxes.
What value will you put on an item your baby will use 24 HOURS per day . . . SEVEN DAYS per week . . . for at least 18 MONTHS TO 3 YEARS? An item worn against the most sensitive, vulnerable and precious part of your baby's body? An item which must not only offer a comfortable, snug fit . . . but must be durable enough to last through 200 wetting, pooping, rinsing, washing and drying cycles!?
Disposable Dangers!
Cloth News
*Chemicals in Diapers Cited as Possible Asthma Trigger
By Penny Stern, MD
NEW YORK, Oct 06 (Reuters Health) -- Childhood respiratory problems, including asthma, may be linked to inhaling the mixture of chemicals emitted from disposable diapers, researchers write in the September/October issue of Archives of Environmental Health. Lead author Dr. Rosalind C. Anderson, of Anderson Laboratories in West Hartford, Vermont, told Reuters Health that "chemical emissions of some disposable diapers have immediate health effects in animals breathing the diluted chemical mixtures." Upon analysis, the diaper emissions were found to include "several chemicals with documented respiratory toxicity," according to the paper.
Mice were used in this study because "of their general physiological and biochemical similarity to humans," Anderson explained, adding that "both humans and mice develop bronchoconstriction as a response to certain (odors and substances)." Bronchoconstriction refers to a narrowing of air passages in the lungs that is associated with respiratory difficulties.Upon exposing the mice to various brands of disposable diapers, "a decrease (was observed) in the ability of (the) animals to move air during exhalation," Anderson said. Noting that this finding accurately describes asthma or an asthma-like reaction, she added that "if mice and humans respond in a similar manner to diaper emissions, disposable diapers could be important with respect to the worldwide asthma epidemic."
In contrast to the results obtained with disposables, "new cloth diapers produced very little respiratory effects and appeared to be the least toxic choice for a consumer," the researchers write.
