ecotip
Greener Diapers Cloth Better than Disposable for People
and the Planet
Disposable diapers are the third most common consumer item in land- fills. When even those labeled “eco-friendly” are covered by other de- bris after being discarded and hidden from sun- light and air, they don’t readily biodegrade. Producing dis- posables also makes major demands on water, energy, nonre- newable resources like oil and renewables like wood. Many brands contain harmful ingredients such as polyacrylate, dioxin, phthalates and heavy metals that can be absorbed by a baby’s soft, developing skin and promote rashes. According to
SmallFootprintFamily.com, 90 to 95
percent of American babies annually generate 27.4 billion single-use plastic diapers, or 7.6 billion pounds of garbage. While comparable statistics on adult diapers aren’t avail- able, Euromonitor International forecasts a 48 percent increase in U.S. sales to $2.7 billion in 2020, up from $1.8 billion in 2015. In a decade, sales of diapers for adults could surpass those for babies at Kimberly-Clark and Proct- er & Gamble, attributed to bladder control issues related to health and age, according to the Urology Care Foundation and Mayo Clinic. The American Academy of Pediatrics and the Ameri- can Public Health Association advise that in all cases, fecal matter and urine should be rinsed and flushed down the toilet instead of put in the trash, so that contaminants don’t enter groundwater and potentially spread disease. Tradi- tional cloth diapers are the way to go for several reasons beyond budget:
4 Using cloth facilitates earlier potty education by quickly communicating to the baby when they are wet. New cloth diaper systems like Nicki’s Diapers (
NickisDiapers.com) can be easily cleaned in regular and high-efficiency washing ma- chines. Some popular brands are listed at
DiaperPin.com.
Massage Therapy Available.
4 The nonprofit association at
RealDiapers.org helps con- nect local groups of mothers to communicate and share best practices in use, cleaning and potty training, such as learning a baby’s cues for needing to go. It also hosts informative events such as the annual national Great Cloth Diaper Change.
4 Cloth diapers in good condition can be resold on eBay and sites like
DiaperSwappers.com.
20 South Central PA
NaturalCentralPA.com
Pamela D. Maxwell/
Shutterstock.com
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