Why choose cloth diapers?

Chemicals In Disposables

Since the 1960’s the disposable diaper changed from a plastic diaper with a lot of paper fluff to a diaper constructed of a waterproof plastic outer layer, a pad with super absorbent chemicals (absorbs 100x its weight in liquid), and an inner liner. Disposables are made mostly of synthetic materials. Dioxin, the most toxic of all cancer-linked chemicals according to the Environmental Protection Agency, is a by-product of bleaching paper. The super absorbent chemical, sodium polyacrylate, absorbs and holds fluids in the diaper. Interestingly, tampon companies no longer use this chemical because of Toxic Shock Syndrome. If the chemical isn’t safe to use on an adult, why are disposable diaper companies still having us put this next to our baby’s delicate skin?

The CDC says the following on their website "Children are uniquely vulnerable to toxicants in the environment. Pound for pound, children eat more food, breathe more air, and drink more water. Their hand-to-mouth behaviors and their activities close to the ground increase their chances for exposure to hazardous substances. Their metabolic pathways are immature, so they detoxify and excrete pollutants less efficiently than adults. In addition, children are growing and developing rapidly, which can be disrupted by hazardous substances in the environment. After childhood exposure, they can get diseases that can take many decades to develop."

And most alarmingly, disposable diapers have been linked to male infertility and asthma.

Disposables and Landfill Concerns

About 3.3 million tons of untreated body excrement, which may carry over 100 intestinal viruses, is brought to landfills via disposable diapers every year. This may contribute to groundwater contamination and attract insects that carry and transmit diseases. The average baby will create two tons of bio-hazardous waste that will sit in a landfill for hundreds of years.

Here is a compelling photograph - a girl sitting in front of all the disposable diapers she'd use and next to all the cloth diapers she'd use. Again keep in mind that cloth can be sold or handed down so that stack of cloth diapers can be used for more than one child, but the disposable diapers would always be the same for each child.


Environmental Burden

Manufactures of disposables say energy usage is the same for cloth as disposables, but the fact is that disposables use much more energy than cloth does. After all, it takes a lot more to run a huge factory than a simple washer and dryer.

A famous study was done in 1990 by Arthur D. Little, Inc. The report was commissioned by Procter & Gamble, the company that makes Pampers and Luvs and holds the largest share of the throwaway diaper industry. Not surprisingly, the report concluded that disposables are no worse for the environment than cloth diapers. That study and several others are based on a controversial methodology called "lifecycle analysis," which attempts to measure the environmental impact of energy and resources consumed in the creation, use, and disposal of a product. Defenders of throwaway diapers use this type of analysis to point out that the diaper debate needs to go beyond the single issue of solid waste disposal. Yes, they say, throwaways add unnecessary waste to already-overwhelmed landfills, but reusable diapers take a toll of their own. Laundering can require large amounts of water and detergent, for example. Diaper service delivery trucks waste gas and cause pollution. And the cotton crops that provide material for the diapers are grown with harmful pesticides.

Which factors are measured depends on who's conducting the study. "The science of doing lifecycle analysis has not been well established," says Beaudry. "It leaves open all kinds of questions: Where do you start? Where do you finish? How do you prioritize?" She notes, for instance, that the Little study fails to take into account the amount of water required to flush away the contents of used throwaways as recommended on the box.,/p>

A report released in 1991 by the National Association of Diaper Services and prepared by consultants Lehrburger, Mullen, and Jones challenged the results of the Little study with its own findings:

Compared with reusables, throwaways produce seven times more solid waste when discarded and three times more waste in the manufacturing process.

Effluents from the plastic, pulp, and paper industries are far more hazardous than those from the cotton-growing and -manufacturing processes.

Single-use diapers consume less water than reusables laundered at home, and more than those sent to a commercial diaper service.

Industry data from Franklin Associates and The American Petroleum Institute add to this picture. Findings reveal, for instance, that 3.5 billion gallons of oil are used to produce the 18 billion throwaway diapers that end up in landfills each year. Additionally, the Women's Environmental Network (WEN), a non-profit organization based in London, commissioned the Landbank Consultancy to produce a scientific critique of the studies funded by Procter & Gamble. The consultancy, which used the same raw data and reached markedly different conclusions, reported, among other findings, that throwaways use five times more energy than reusables.

In my family we chose to switch from disposable diapers to cloth diapers to save money. After doing all the research though, we decided we would use cloth at any cost. Afterall you can't put a pricetag on your baby's health or saving the environment.