The Disposable Diaper Myth

[Yvhuce]

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?

They used to use stuff like moss and reeds. Or just let them run around pooping and peeing on the ground.

[Baby Brian]

messyman, I have to admit that report looks legitimate and is an interesting read. Do you have any other sources? Regardless, it seems we need to stop arguing over plastic or cloth and look at the bigger problem. Construction Debris and heavy metal waste- otherwise it's like trying to plug a roof leak in the middle of a flood.

[lil_baby_wet_n_squishy]

Used disposable diapers can be recycled into energy, so I see them as better then cloth. Just think about how much water you are wasting to wash cloth diapers.

[Baby Brian]

Used disposable diapers can be recycled into energy, so I see them as better then cloth. Just think about how much water you are wasting to wash cloth diapers.

Very true, several large cities have all ready started using a plasma incinerator/generator to convert their trash into energy. Here, this wiki link is somewhat accurate. Tallahassee Florida all ready has theirs up and running and my city of Jacksonville is planning one too. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plasma_arc_waste_disposal It's a very new technology so not many have been brought on line yet, but it almost- if not completely- solves our trash problem. (gases-mostly hydrogen power the incinerator, fuel the trash trucks, and produce electricity; solid ash waste gets mixed into black top, concrete, or tiles so long as they aren't processing radio active material).

[drynot]

It may sound disgusting but I wonder if there is a way to recover the plastic backing from disposables in order to recycle them into new diapers?

There has to be a way eh? Perhaps its just not cost effective these days but maybe some day in the near future we could recycle most of our plastic diapers.....