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not so easy being green

iStock 000000821800XSmall not so easy being green
I have recently been evaluating my environmental consumer behavior and am coming to the unfortunate conclusion that I’ve become rather complacent and arrogant, resting on my Lunapads laurels. Being an eco-entrepreneur (in my case) can be a bit of an excuse – after all, I’ve done my bit to save the planet and then some, right? What started this ball rolling was an e-newsletter I received from yoyomama.ca (highly recommended for Vancouver Moms who want to get the lowdown on everything from sample sales to local family-friendly events) entitled “the Great Diaper Debate”. I was intrigued to check out the writer’s perspective, but then disappointed to find that the extent of the “debate” only covered a comparison of 2 brands of unbleached disposable diapers. I fired off a huffy email to the editor letting her know that whether disposable or cloth diapers are greener is far from debatable, and lamented to Suzanne how framing it as a “debate” allows parents who choose not to cloth diaper to feel like they weighed 2 equal sides of an argument and made the most responsible choice.

But here’s the kicker: I use disposable (unbleached, but still) diapers on my daughter at night and while she naps. While I was pretty diligent with using cloth diapers (I even made my own wipes!) until she was about 2, she has now started to toilet-train. Having outgrown her toddler sized diapers (now donated to Suzanne’s baby Garret) we are using 2 disposables a day in the hopes that she will shortly be able to extend her daytime diaper-free skills 24/7. This admission has forced me to reconsider how green I really am.


For the record, disposable diapers consume 20 times more resources than cloth, take a whopping 500 years apiece to biodegrade and allow disease-breeding untreated fecal waste to leach into groundwater. I don’t know about other parts of the world, but here in British Columbia it’s illlegal to dispose of human waste in landfills. The average (exclusively disposable-diapered) child will go through approximately 5,000 of these environmental timebombs before they are 2 years old. Also not insignificant is the chlorine used in bleaching them, the number of trees cut down to make the kraft wood pulp, the horrible plastic derived from petroleum, and the multitude of chemical surfactants, gels (super absorbent polymers or SAPs) dyes and perfumes stuffed in the diapers.

The weird thing is, the more I look around to see how others fare with respect to small footprints, I see a lot of confusing and even contradictory things: a friend with an otherwise impeccable eco-record whose vice is huge amounts of air travel, another friend who drives an SUV yet raises vast sums of money for charity, seeing organic cotton t-shirts for sale at Wal-Mart and hemp t-shirts at Costco – it feels like it just gets blurrier all the time. At any rate, I want to re-commit to cleaning up my act. To that end – my husband and I have just bought a house, so composting is a must, I plan to work from home more in order to reduce car time, and perhaps even shop around for just a few more cloth diapers…

For an eye-opening historical review of the politics of diapers, please see this article from mothering.com, one of our favourite websites. As far as Suzanne and I are concerned, cloth is the way to go, for your baby and the planet.

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  • katie

    Cloth IS the way to go! 12+ years ago I cloth diapered our 2 children at the advice of physicians and mother and mother in law! They all thought disposables were disgusting—and contributors to rashes LONG before the environmental debate really started. All I have to say is that I was TOTALLY against the cloth at first—I thought it was disgusting!(You know, kinda like the initial reaction to cloth pads :} ) BUT I soon found out there was nothing as satisfying as pulling soft, fresh cloth diapers out of the dryer for a precious, permeable little tush! No matter how gross those diapers were going into the washer (we were poor—no diaper service or fancy cloth for us)—they ALWAYS came out fresh and fluffy and soft. On the occasions we did use disposables, it was really horrifying to use a crinkly, plastic, chemically stinky item on a soft baby bum used to soft, clean cotton! For less than $400—Parents can purchase enough cotton flatfold diapers and covers for birth through potty training—-what a deal :)

  • http://www.lunapads.com suzanne

    i suspect the majority of those who contemplate, rather briefly, cloth vs disposables inevitiably choose disposables for ‘convenience’. i acknowledge that access to a washing machine is an important prerequisite, but i just don’t get it when parents still opt for disposables when they have these amazing appliances. yes, it takes some extra time, which is precious these days, but it is totally worth it, in my opinion. you just need to develop a system (a future post coming about this) that works for you. we try to air dry our dipes (the sun bleaches them white) as often as possible. the only time i cave in and use disposables is when travelling out of town. 7th Generation is my preferred brand, since they are unbleached and fit my baby well. however, these 2 diapers are biodegradable and i’m going to take a closer look. http://shop.nurturecenter.com/naboygididib.html
    http://gdiapers.com/ (check out the scary video of how long it takes for a regular diaper to decompose!)

    anyways, doing cloth, even part time is worth it. even if we can’t be green all the time, every effort is worth it.

    of course the best option is to go diaper free… more about that in a future post!

  • http://domicile.typepad.com Emira

    Great post Madeleine! While I can’t weigh in personally on cloth diapers, I can recommend that beyond composting you also look into a rainbarrel for your lovely new house. If there’s one thing Vancouver has no shortage of it is rain! And then you can keep your lovely garden happy year-round!

  • Blythe

    Hello, all,

    My husband and I are in the process of adopting a child and we’ve already started thinking about diapering (have to do something constructive during “the wait!”).

    We’d like to use cloth diapers as much as possible.We do imagine, however,that our child will likely be going to daycare at least 3 days a week after my maternity leave is over. How do daycare providers handle cloth diapering–do they allow it? Will it be difficult to find a provider that understands? (We live in Chicago).

    Thanks for thoughts!

    Blythe

  • Lynn

    I’d like to add another resource – http://www.diaperpin.com It isn’t a site where you can buy diapers, but it has reviews and info on different diapers, accessories (like wet bags), and companies that do sell stuff.

    We used disposables on an overseas trip when we had no access to a dryer and it was the rainy season. Beyond that, we always traveled with cloth (the airlines even lost a bag of ours with more than a dozen (clean) diapers in it). I can say from experience, the disposable is the stinky part, even when it is just urine!

    I think lots of cloth diapering parents have had to use a disposable now and again. Just like sometimes you are caught without your mug or water bottle and need something to drink.

    I wonder how many Luna-folks out there who became moms use cloth (or EC)? Having used lunapads for a few years, maybe that is why cloth diapers didn’t seem so weird to me.

  • Amy

    Just wanted to add another resource in the Reduce-Reuse-Recycle equation for cloth diapers. See http://www.diaperswappers.com for their online forums. Their FSOT area allows you to feed your CD addiction or to get rid of everything once your childbearing days are done and the youngest is potty-trained.

  • Heather

    About 12 years ago, my wonderful mother gave me the best baby gift of all – cloth diaper service. My only regret was not continuing the service past 18mos. I ‘d also heard about EC back then, too, but I didn’t understand it well enough to give it a try. Kudos to you gals for bringing attention to this natural, eco-friendly way to bring up baby.