Saving the Planet, One Diaper at a Time
By Alan Greene, M.D.
www.drgreene.com
As a father and pediatrician, I’ve changed many diapers—enough to teach me that diapers are a daily reminder that as humans we deplete resources as we consume, and we make messes with our waste.
Those landfill diapers that are so easily tossed into the trash are clearly a major ecological issue. But what about the energy, water, and often chlorine involved in laundering cloth diapers? Comparing the environmental impact of different types of diapers has been the subject of a number of studies—with differing results often linked to the vested interests of those behind the study.
The largest and most objective study to date was carried out by the Environment Agency, the public body responsible for protecting the environment in England and Wales. The panel compared disposable diapers to home-laundered cloth diapers and commercially laundered cotton diapers in terms of global warming, ozone depletion, smog formation, depletion of nonrenewable resources, water pollution, acidification, human toxicity, and land pollution. The study did not include what I call hybrid diapers—the reusable diapers equipped with flushable, biodegradable liners.
This study found that overall environmental impact is about the same for all three options they did consider; the biggest impact is on global warming, resource depletion, and acidification. For disposable diapers, the most significant impact comes during manufacture; for home-laundered diapers, the primary impact comes from the electricity used in washing and drying; for commercially laundered diapers, the biggest impact comes from use of fuels and electricity.
Thus, according to the Environment Agency, if you choose cloth diapers, the first focus should be on reducing the energy used during washing and drying and reducing fuels and emissions during transportation (see Chapter Seven for more information about laundry). If you choose disposable diapers, focus first on greener manufacturing, such as used by the Eco-Diapers mentioned previously.
Although the Environment Agency report is more thorough than other analyses to date, it is still quite incomplete. For instance, it looked only at the major brands used—not the greener alternatives. It didn’t look at making choices back at the very beginning of the manufacturing process: at the oil rigs where the plastic liners of landfill diapers begin, at the forests where the wood pulp starts as trees, and in the cotton fields long before cotton is a cloth. There is a big difference between cotton grown drenched in toxic chemicals and cotton organically grown, between sustainable forestry and irresponsible logging, between dioxin-producing chlorine gas in pulp mills and bleach-free diapers.
Whatever we choose for diapers, we have an unavoidable impact on the environment. But whatever we choose, we can make those diapers a little greener.
Dr. Alan Greene, author of Raising Baby Green, is a graduate of Princeton University and the University of California San Francisco. In addition to being the founder of www.DrGreene.com, he is the Chief Medical Officer of A.D.A.M., and the Pediatric Expert for WebMD. He is the Chair Elect of The Organic Center and on the Advisory Board of Healthy Child Healthy World. Dr. Greene appears frequently on TV, radio, websites, and in print including appearances on The Today Show, Fox and Friends, The Wall Street Journal, Parents Magazine, and US Weekly. Dr. Greene is a practicing pediatrician at Stanford University’s Packard Children’s Hospital.
Interesting study. While all three seem to be “equal”, it appears to me that the permanancy of the landfilling (yes, I made that word up!) is a factor that must be seriously considered. The energy costs are one factor, but landfills are multi-generational lasting.
~Beth
[...] Related posts:Saving The Planet One Diaper at a Time [...]
seems that local conditions should be taken into consideration…ie - if you live where water resources are a concern, disposables seem better, whilst cloth would be better where landfill space is at a premium.
I agree Kendra. I used to think gDiapers were not a very good alternative to cloth, but when you do consider water issues, they are the perfect solution in areas of drought. Since I live off the grid, energy consumption with cloth diapers has never been an issue. After two children, my cloth diapers are starting to fall apart and are stained. I can’t wait for my diaper days to be done!
Maybe the best option then is to potty train our children earlier and get them out of diapers earlier! We have tried both cloth and disposables but we have also been using EC (elimination communication) with our daughter since she was 6 months and I think we have cut down our waste dramatically. Many other countries do it that way.
[...] itself as the solution to the poopy diaper conundrum;(disposable diapers are filling up the landfills and cloth diapers uses lots of water) gdiaper is the hybrid of the two. It has the cotton [...]
[...] Saving the Planet, One Diaper at a Time [...]
[...] have converted many a disposable diaper user to “greener” ways. But while many cloth diaper enthusiasts and flushable diaper users have strong opinions about which cloth diapers work the best, I’ve [...]
I second the Elimination Communication mention above! I have used this method, with cloth diapers as back-up, with both my children which drastically reduced the amount of diaper laundry I had to do. Right now, with my 12 month old, we go through about 6-8 diapers a week and she’s always dry so no diaper rashes. My 2.5 year old was reliably out of diapers at 14 months old and before that we were only using 6-8 diapers per week for several months.
EC is a completely non-coercive method which follows the child’s cues and elimination schedule from as early as birth. It’s much easier if it’s started before 6 months since after 6 months, the child is already “trained” to eliminate in his/her pants.
diaperfreebaby.org has articles and information about this method for those who are interested. It’s really not that much work (even with pretty closely spaced siblings!) and it can be done part-time or even just once or twice a day upon waking from nighttime or a nap to accustom the child to the option of using a potty instead of his/her diaper.
This method has not only saved precious resources, but a lot of money which we were able to use to buy local foods - something we otherwise might not have been able to afford.
~B.