The Disposable Diaper Myth

[Boston_Daddy]

AN ENTIRE GENERATION is growing up believing that the term "disposable diaper" is redundant: There's only one thing you put on babies' bottoms. For Huggies and Pampers and Luvs are not "disposable" at all. We throw about 18 billion of them away each year into trash cans and bags, believing they've gone to some magic place where they will safely disappear. The truth is, most of the plastic-lined "disposables" end up in landfills. There they sit, tightly wrapped bundles of urine and feces that partially and slowly decompose only over many decades. What started out as a marketer's dream of drier, happier, more comfortable babies has become a solid-waste nightmare of squandered material resources, skyrocketing economics, and a growing health hazard, set against the backdrop of dwindling landfill capacity in a country driven by consumption.

Related Results. And so it is with diapers. The pur and honorable cotton diaper represents approximately 10 percent of the U.S. diaper market

The sheer numbers of diapers being bought, used, and disposed of in our trash are mind-boggling. Industry statistics indicate that as many as 18 billion disposable diapers will be used in the U.S. this year' - the end products of a market valued at more than $3 billion. Chalk up more than half of that market to Proctor & Gamble, maker of Pampers and Luvs; 30 percent to KimberleyClark's Huggies; and the rest to various generic or "house" brands. It's easy to see how the numbers add up. All of 98 percent of all households using diapers use some disposables. And, as many parents know, a child can run through 8,000 to 10,000 diapers before becoming fully toilet trained.

This is only a small portion of the article, i didnt want to bore you guys with the whole article. Im not sure where i stand on this issue, i am an AB / DL, but mostly a DL. Id love to hear some other people's comments.

This is the link to the whole article: http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1510/is_n60/ai_6642692/pg_4/?tag=content;col1

[Creepymouse]

And, as many parents know, a child can run through 8,000 to 10,000 diapers before becoming fully toilet trained.

That's probably a low estimate for most of us!

[GeekSquad_in_Diapers]

That's probably a low estimate for most of us!

I think most of us will go through more than 10 times that amount over our lifetimes.

[ForbiddenFruit]

Disposables are a convenience thing for the most part, and, well, what of us who try to keep our AB / DL side secret? Disposables are easier to (pardon the pun) dispose of.

[Skywolf]

I take the landfill issue with disposable diapers with a grain of salt.

How about the plastic that enclosed a product you are buying? Trash bags? The styrofoam that protects that new electronic or collector plate you just bought? The styrofoam and plastic that encloses that lb. of hamburger in the fridge? That empty plastic milk carton?

It's hard enough to convince people to recycle, let alone deal with cloth diapers.

Then there is the adult side of disposable diapers. Most people look for discreet diapers, which most cloth diapers that are decent cannot accomplish, where most disposables can.

-Sky

[Baby Brian]

I've tries switching to cloth nappies but couldn't keep up with the stinky laundry, had a hard time getting used to the feel, and a service for adult diapers was going to cost me more than plastic disposables. I tried the "cloth like" disposable diapers but they either leaked after the first wetting, or with the first if I was laying down. The cloth "underwear" pull-up diapers were even worse. They may not be good for the environment, but there's not really much of an alternative.

[timmyc]

We have the technology to turn garbage into clean burning fuel addressing two large environmental issues yet we continue to use fossil fuels and landfills.

[Bettypooh]

In the long run with all factors considered, there is little difference between the environmental impact of disposables versus cloth The most important factor is probably how limited your local water supply is And if I haven't gone through 10,000 diapers yet at least I'm trying

Bettypooh

[gbw_dl]

btw it only takes about 15 years for a diaper to decompose. i just look at it as we are making fuel for our future generations so they dont have to pay $3.00 or more a gallon

[Bettypooh]

btw it only takes about 15 years for a diaper to decompose. i just look at it as we are making fuel for our future generations so they dont have to pay $3.00 or more a gallon

This number varies according to the disposal method and site situation, as does the decomposition of cloth This and more has been well-beaten by proponents of both cloth and disposables and neither side has been able to conclusively prove that their preference is substantially better for the environment I am a fan of cloth diapers- and a very skeptical person too On doing my own research I discovered the "Disposable Diaper Myth" is just that; a myth One is not better than the other when all factors are considered And when the 'big picture' is seen, diapers don't rate as very significant in the harmful things we do to our environment compared to more deadly industrial, chemical, and electronic waste that we're now dumping into the landfills with reckless glee In the end we're doing ro get what we ask for whether we want it or not, and that's how it's supposed to be

Bettypooh

[spark]

the "Disposable Diaper Myth" is just that; a myth One is not better than the other when all factors are considered And when the 'big picture' is seen, diapers don't rate as very significant in the harmful things we do to our environment compared to more deadly industrial, chemical, and electronic waste that we're now dumping into the landfills with reckless glee In the end we're doing ro get what we ask for whether we want it or not, and that's how it's supposed to be.

Bettypooh

[Bettypooh]

You have to be careful making such rational arguments. It may harm any potential political career you may aspire, and will certainly destroy any hope of becoming a media pundit.

Hope? What's that? I'm a card-carrying member of the "Realist" party Our political platform is a diving board over an abandoned parking lot- if you're lucky when you jump there will be a puddle below. Don't aim for the yellow puddles! Few survive long, and those who do have an impact on the world, as well as the concrete below Being a realist requires a hard head that's screwed on tight When you become a Realist, it becomes apparent that we're all screwed by the other political parties We require all our male members to have a beard or mustache- we don't want any bald-face liars here Our party symbol is an image of a kiss, cast in concrete, which makes it easy to keep a stiff upper lip Our agenda is to remove all the lies from the world, beginning with hope, which we abandoned long ago- thus we're a pretty hopeless bunch Our aim is to make people realize that "Life is just a sh!t" (op cit Monty Python) and that when seen realistically, the things that really matter are always minimalized, detested, overlooked, destroyed, ignored, berated, hated, criminalized, misunderstood, and rejected by the majority This is why we have no hope We are the holders of the ultimate truth: In the end we're all dead Depressing? Yes- but realistic nonetheless!

Bettypooh

[ajc2000]

I've tries switching to cloth nappies but couldn't keep up with the stinky laundry, had a hard time getting used to the feel, and a service for adult diapers was going to cost me more than plastic disposables. I tried the "cloth like" disposable diapers but they either leaked after the first wetting, or with the first if I was laying down. The cloth "underwear" pull-up diapers were even worse. They may not be good for the environment, but there's not really much of an alternative.

Same problem as me. I tried switching to disposable like nappies (Velcro close hour glass shape) to save money in the long run (and planet) but had same problem with them leaking. I only use the large ones now to cover disposable at night for extra protection as still leak every now and then at night even with disposables.

[bignappybo]

and when you are out and your wearing a diaper you do not need to carry a wet or messy diaper around with you all day when you are wearing a disposable like you would need to do if you were wearing a cloth diaper so disposables are a lot better when it comes to this sort of situation

[acemanner]

people seem to forget that cloth isn't exactly easy on the enviroment either. consider the chemicals you wash them in, where do those go? down the drain. Consider the amount of water used as well.

[AutieAB]

people seem to forget that cloth isn't exactly easy on the enviroment either. consider the chemicals you wash them in, where do those go? down the drain. Consider the amount of water used as well.

And the bleaches and dyes used to make the cloth, the electricity used to wash and dry them, the cost of plastic pants which aren't exactly 'green' to manufacture, etc, etc, etc...

There's just no way on earth that cloth diapers are that much better for the environment. If there is a difference either way, it's negligible. The people who spout that stuff are just trying to be different and rebelious.

The environmental impact of cloth diapers is just in a different place in it's lifecycle than disposables. It's just like people who say electric cars have zero emissions. Sure, maybe nothing comes out of the exhaust pipe but what about what the magnets to make those motors (from filthy rare earth mines in China), the shed load of li-ion batteries not to mention where the power that charges those batteries comes from (coal and nuclear power mostly). It's not 'zero emissions' or 'environmentally friendly', it's just that the nasty crap is offset and takes place somewhere other than under the bonnet.

[sarah_ab]

i thought disposable meant you could dispose of it after one use... NOT that it was recyclable or biodegradable... just disposable....... if you want that... well there are some great diapers that have a plastic/cloth like shell with a place to insert a truely biodegradable pad.. which you take out when soiled and can literally compost

[messyman]

Biodegradable stuff is just a gimmick unless you are going to compost it yourself. Paper lasts for decades in a landfill so anything sturdier than that is damn neer imortal.

[Baby Brian]

messyman, obviously you've never seen a documentary on land fills or watched dirty jobs. Paper and cardboard will biodegrade well within a year. Older plastic diapers take 10-15 years, and the newer plastic diapers (that most manufacturers use now) take half that. The waste from making bleach and the harsh detergents take a year or two to finally start biodegrading, and when they do they promote algae growth that damages the eco system about as bad as manufacturing plastic. Neither cloth or plastic are a good option but don't pretend one is superior to the other either. And definitely don't pretend composting your self takes less time than composting in a land fill.

[messyman]

If you read the papers by the archeologists that dig in landfill they date the layers by reading the dates on newspapers and phonebooks. Unless they have changed landfill practices significantly it's just long term storage.

[Baby Brian]

messyman, I know the media likes to dramatize and many environmentalists give them selves a bad name for stretching or distorting the truth but we must be getting conflicting information. I most recently remember some entrepreneurs documenting how they were trying to excavate a land fill that was 5 years old to tap the methane, recycle the metal, and recover any plastic that might still be down there (and make money in the process). They were able to find a method to tap the methane (recently showcased in popular science magazine too) but digging into the landfill proved messy beyond belief since most of rotting mass had all ready biodegraded into a stinky brown goo that was pressurized in pockets (yes some plastic from diapers, bags, bottles, etc was still there but had all ready broken apart into smaller bits and wasn't recoverable). I can also recall the massive plastic dead zone in the pacific that's been on the news. Even though it's feed daily there's almost no recognizable plastic bigger than an inch there as it breaks apart so fast (aided by the UV light in this instance of course). Overall, my understanding is that Plastic is not immortal, and actually does break apart then biodegrade. Of course if you can also go to Wikipedia and note someone quoting it can persist for hundreds or thousands of years (without proof I might add since man made plastic isn't that old to begin with- but still not immortal). It even shows a nice picture of plastic litter on a hawaii beach (what they conveniently leave out in the text, but can be found in the cited resources, is that's taken shortly after an illegal dumping too close to shore). Again, I'm not saying plastic is the best thing ever but I do know it's not as bad as you've been led to believe. And when compared to the down sides of cloth, it really seems like they are both on par for ruining our environment.

[sarah_ab]

life after people... the only 'immortal' thing out there... stainless steel.

[Creepymouse]

Even concrete melts, eventually!

I, personally, believe that cloth are better overall... while most prefer to bleach and over-soap their laundry, there's no reason one can't use a minimum of real soap, a tiny bit of bleach if necessary (the directions on the bottle are for their benefit, not yours) and unbleached cotton cloth to begin with. Heck, if you were really keen on it, use recycled cotton fabric that would have been otherwise thrown away, like old flannel sheets, fraying or faded towels, anything that would still soak up some pee.

You think our ancestors made baby-poop-catchers out of expensive or valuable new cloth? More likely they'd use something that was already destined for the trash pit. Now that I think about it...I wonder what the best diaper material was before cotton (as we know it) became prevalent?

[Bettypooh]

....You think our ancestors made baby-poop-catchers out of expensive or valuable new cloth? More likely they'd use something that was already destined for the trash pit. Now that I think about it...I wonder what the best diaper material was before cotton (as we know it) became prevalent?

You really don't want to know what they used to do to babies Suffice it to say that doing it today would land the parents in jail

Bettypooh

[messyman]

http://traumwerk.stanford.edu:3455/symmetry/174

Down near the bottom it talks about how they recover thousands of readable newspapers from decades old layers.