The Great Diaper Debate: Comparing the Environmental Impact of “Eco-Friendly” Diapers
I knew going into having a baby that the mountains of diapers would horrify me from both a personal hygiene and environmental perspective. I also knew that I wasn’t game for potty-training-at-birth philosophies. Sure enough, if I calculate how many diapers I’ve changed for my now 15 month old, I’m horrified.
Two months before I gave birth to my baby girl I did some research on which diapers would have the least amount of environmental impact. Traditional, “non-eco” disposables were never even an option…I was interested only in comparing “eco” choices.
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First, let me say how disappointed I was to find very little solid information on the environmental impacts of eco-friendly diapers, given that all of us have soiled our fair share of one kind of diaper or another in our early life. Most studies compared only traditional, non-eco disposables against non organic cloth diaper delivery services. In fact, I have yet to find a study that compares every kind of diaper. Let this be a call to action for the Powers That Be: We moms need a study that compares the eco and baby-butt- health-attributes of traditional disposables, “eco” non-chlorinated disposables (e.g. Seventh Generation), “super eco” biodegradable sustainably resourced non-chlorinated disposables (e.g. Nature Boy and Girl, Tushies), non-organic cloth washed at home, organic cloth washed at home, non-organic cloth diaper service and organic cloth diaper service. Whew. I see why no one has done that study. The best comparison I found was done by National Geographic’s Green Guide.
So, piecing together bits of information, and thinking this through as best as my mommy brain can, here is my conclusion: eco disposables and organic cotton cloth diapers have about the same environmental impact, however, there is a slight difference depending on where you live. If you live in a water-rich area, go with cloth. If you live in a relatively dry area, choose eco disposables. A few supporting points and clarifications:
- I lump all eco disposables into one category because the majority of them end up in landfill and, once there, they won’t biodegrade even if they are marketed as biodegradable due to the lack of oxygen. Supposedly, you can compost wet biodegradable diapers/G-Diaper inserts (not poopie ones due to the pathogens), but I found varying opinions on whether it actually works or not.
- In a study conducted by Dr. Alan Greene for Seventh Generation, they found that water usage was at least two times greater for cloth diapers (vs disposables) depending on whether they were washed at home or by a service, taking into account the full lifecycle–raw resources to disposal–of both kinds of diapers. They also found that washing cloth diapers at home uses anywhere from 50 to 70 gallons of water every three days. Again, this is less of a big deal if you are in a water rich area, but, for the millions of us that live in dry places like CO, CA, AZ, NV, we should think twice about doing all that laundry. Given that water scarcity out-weighs landfill capacity in most areas, think about water before waste.
- In the same study, Dr Alan Greene mentions that Cloth diapers generally require the use of chlorine bleach for sanitizing purposes (particularly if sent to a diaper cleaning service where diapers are shared among many households). Once rinsed down a drain, chlorine can combine with organic material naturally present in ground and surface waters to create toxins like chloroform.
- Both eco disposables and organic cloth diapers are made from renewable resources (paper from sustainable forestry or corn; organic cotton), all positives compared to plastic (non-renewable petroleum based) disposables.
I’ve been cloth diapering my youngest and loving it. The water issue is certainly a bit thorny, but that was the solution I felt best about.
I started out with so called eco-friendly disposables but switched to cloth diapers after a few months since it seems to be the better way. At least for me. Another big point towards the cloth diapers is that your baby pottytrains much faster. My son is 22 months now and only needs only one diaper per day and that´s through the night. So the shorter the time of using diapers the less waste or water usage! That´s something to consider as well!
first of all thanks for the entire group 350.as i am male and ofcourse a good father ,recently i have 3month son with good health.using a diper i think baby feel uncomfortable and i hope using always enable baby thybone to turn.so naturally i prefer rather than,somrtimes using diper(long tour).{different brands are avilable some are good next bad} afterall thanks.
We’re using (mostly)cloth too and don’t have a washer and dryer in the house so we end up going to the laundromat once or twice a week. I’ve thought about the water issue here in NM so I don’t know if it’s better or worse to save them up but we definitely get a full load when we go which might help with water conservation here (but maybe not??). I’d feel better about the biodegradable options (like g diapers) if they had a chance to biodegrade at the landfill. As for chlorine, we don’t use it and they get clean in the wash as long as we rinse them really good before throwing the ‘dirty” ones in. Overall, the cloth ones seem a little easier on the baby’s butt and when we use any kind of disposable I see more diaper rash right away. That’s my .02.
ARG. Greene is wrong on the chlorine bleach thing - I have never, and never will, use chlorine bleach on my precious cloth diapers!!! I do see that he talks about commercial diaper services, but my impression is that the majority of CDing parents these days wash at home, and many manufacturers’ warranties are nullified if you use bleach.
Great info. I thought about using cloth diapers with out first but decided washing them was one chore I didn’t want to add to our schedule and didn’t trust what chemicals a commercial service might be using to clean them. We ended up using Seventh Generation diapers and will continue to use them for our second. Thank you for mentioning the cost comparisons. Many people tell me they don’t want to spend the extra cash but I found that by signing up for ‘Subscribe and Save’ through Amazon.com, I get a box of diapers every time I need them and the cost is the same as Pampers, etc. It also saves me a lot of last minute trips to the store - where the diapers are much more expensive.
I am really surprised at the 50-70 gallons every three days remark. Even in the newborn period, even washing every day and a half, do washing machines really use 25-35 gallons of water per load? That seems like a really high number, even if you wash two cycles in a non-HE machine.
My daughter has long been out of cloth diapers, but we used 100% reusable cloth diapers for the 3.5 years she wore them, and for another few years at night only. When I stopped washing diapers, I never noticed a difference in my water bill, so obviously water use was not as big a deal as people think it is. If you use an efficient, front-loading washer, you will certainly not be using 50-70 gallons every 3 days. I never used bleach, and most modern diaper services don’t use it either.
I simply cannot understand the concern about water. Once your child is potty-trained, they will be flushing a toilet all day long - pretty much equivalent to the amount of water used to wash their diapers. Do you wear throwaway clothes, or do you wash them? Unless you live in the middle of a desert and have only well water, you are using water from a municipal water supply, and it is a renewable resource. The water you use goes through the wastewater treatment system and is once again available for use.
If you are really trying to be green, throwaway is not the answer.
If you live in the San Francisco Bay Area there is another option. My wife and I started with a cloth service but are using Earthbaby Compostable Diaper Service. Earthbaby delivers compostable diapers to our home then they pick up the used ones and compost them. They claim to have diverted over 80,000 pounds of diapers from landfill.
Their website is http://www.earth-baby.com
G-diapers aren’t bad. At night, though, they don’t hold enough pee, and IME the poop doesn’t like to stay just on the liners, but leak onto the cotton g-diaper pants. Since only 2 pants come in each package, that means washing them by hand if you insist on using only the g-dipes.
They–and cloth diapers–are a pain when your LO gets to be around 18 months old and for six months absolutely will not lie still for a diaper change! It was around that time we did only non-chlorine disposables for a while. Sometimes saving your sanity is more important than saving the environment.