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Eco-Friendly Family
luciagdelopez
member
Research says cloth diapers bad on environment
luciagdelopez
member
Someone sent me this link...
https://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/environment/article4969413.ece
what do you ladies think. I personally dont buy it...how can you justify that it takes 1 disposable diaper 500 years to biodegrade. That is 7 generations plus. Also, the findings that the chemicals in the diapers can cause cancer, tumors, etc. Most people that use cloth diapers use a eco friendly soap, and do hang dry most of the year and not just diapers, but all clothing. People just want an excuse to be wasteful.
This discussion has been closed.
Re: Research says cloth diapers bad on environment
I'm curious what the scope of the entire research project was because all I see it reference is the carbon footprint of using cloth vs. the disposables. And what exactly are they including when talking about the carbon footprint of "using" disposables, does it include the production?
Im with you in the thought that people do just want an excuse to be wasteful and this research seems to be quite short sighted and the scope is miniscule at best.
I guess we should all go out and buy disposable clothes then?! There is no way that the production of disposable diapers is less carbon footprint than cloth diapers.
This makes no sense either: "unless parents adopt an extreme approach to laundering them. To reduce the impact of cloth nappies on climate change parents would have to hang wet nappies out to dry all year round, keep them for years for use on younger children"
Don't most people with CD do this anyway? I don't find that to be too extreme.
I didn't read this article, but have read another like it recently. My issues with this theory are, firstly, that people don't seem to take into account all of the energy and resources and chemicals put into the production of disposables; also, when they do consider these resources and point out the pesticides, energy, etc. that go into cotton for cloth diapers, they don't seem to reason that people are only buying a few dozen cloth diapers, as opposed to several thousand disposables.
?
And ditto the eco-friendly laundry detergent, line-drying when necessary, and so on. I think it's a pretty lame argument - it would be hard to convince me that reusable cloth diapers are worse than disposables that just get thrown away at the rate of 50+/week for each baby.?
baby #4 due March '17!
More Green For Less Green
This was my favorite response...
Sealing poo in plastic is a stupid idea whichever way you look at it.jess, Hemsby, uk?
I don't buy it, and I would love to have access to the original study.?
My favorite reponse to this type of nonsense...
"Some of the facts: 18 billion disposable diapers are thrown in landfills each year, taking as many as 500 years to decompose. Disposable diapers make up the third largest source of solid waste in landfills, after newspapers and food and beverage containers--a significant fact, considering they are a single product, used by a limited portion of the population.1 It takes upwards of 82,000 tons of plastic and 1.3 million tons of wood pulp, or a quarter-million trees, to manufacture the disposable diapers that cover the bottoms of 90 percent of the babies born in the US.2
Some will argue that in areas where water is scarce, disposables are the better environmental choice. However, carrying this argument to the extreme, we should be wearing disposable clothes, and using paper plates and plastic utensils. 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. A diaper service puts its diapers through an average of 13 water changes, but because of the economies of scale, uses less water and energy per diaper than one laundry load at home.
Today, as a rule diaper services use biodegradable detergents not harmful phosphates. The waste water produced from washing diapers is benign, while the waste water from the manufacture of the pulp, paper, and plastics used in disposable diapers contains dioxins, solvents, sludge, and heavy metals.3 Chlorine bleach, whose manufacture is harmful to the atmosphere, is used in whitening diaper service diapers, but the environmental impact is far greater in the paper-bleaching process used in making disposable diapers.4
Cotton, of course, is not without its evils. Conventionally grown, it is a major user of harmful pesticides. There are, however, several companies offering organically grown, unbleached cotton diapers as an alternative.
Ultimately, instead of getting bogged down in each side's scientific data, the most commonsense approach is to use commonsense. Weigh the impact of manufacturing and disposing of 8,000 paper-and-plastic diapers over the average diapering period of a child versus that of a few dozen cotton diapers, and decide for yourself which is better for the environment. "
https://www.mothering.com/articles/new_baby/diapers/joy-of-cloth.html