“Disposable” diapers aren’t really so disposable....they sit in a landfill for 500 years. Each child goes through about 7,000 diapers during their life and each child in disposables creates about one ton of solid waste in a year (no surprise to any parent who changes diapers regularly!). Since most people don’t shake the solid waste into a toilet as directed, disease makes its way into our landfills and possibly into our water systems.
Some folks will tell you that cloth diapers are just as bad for the environment because of the energy resources you’ll use in washing them. Back in the early nineties, there was a lot of press stating that cloth wasn’t really any better. Most of this press was the result of a study funded by Proctor & Gamble (which makes a lot of disposable diapers!). An independent study in the UK concluded that cloth diapers are overwhelmingly better. They concluded disposable diapers use 20 times more raw materials, three times more energy, and twice as much water; they generate 60 times more waste.
Disposable diapers are made of “proprietary” ingredients (the companies won’t disclose them), so we’re not 100% sure what’s resting against your baby’s bum. In most cases, it’s a combination of wood pulp, plastics and SAPs (super-absorbent polymers). SAPs were banned in tampons in the U.S. in the eighties because of an increased risk of Toxic Shock Syndrome. Additionally, exposure to disposable diapers has been shown to cause eye, nose, and throat irritation in lab mice. According to a 2000 study, disposable diapers also cause a higher scrotal temperature in boys, which may lead to fertility issues later in life.
Sources for this page:
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•A Tale of Two Diapers from Mothering Magazine
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•The Diaper Debate from ABC News
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•The Great Disposable Diaper Debate from The Sustainability Institute
