Why our family chose Cloth and why you should to!1. Environmental
Once a disposable diaper has been quickly used and thrown away, it is left to live out the rest of its days in a dump…along with 3.4 million tons of other disposable diapers (give or take a few million since this number was compiled in 1998, 10 years ago!). And when I say live out the rest of it’s days, I don’t mean weeks or months. Decomposition is near impossible in an airtight landfill. Without sun and air, your child’s diaper will outlive them, their grandchildren, and for that matter all human life – for eternity! But, precious land space is just one environmental hit disposable diapers make. If I take a meager 18 billion disposable diapers and calculate what it took to make them, this is what I get:
82,000 tons of plastic
1.3 million tons of wood pulp
250,000 trees
Regardless of how much water or electricity it takes to wash and dry cloth diapers, it’s a drop in the bucket compared to the resources used and solid wastes produced by disposable diapers
2. Health:
According to the Environmental Health Association of Nova Scotia, the inner layer of a disposable diaper is treated with chemicals such as sodium polyacrylate, dioxin, and dyes. These chemicals can trigger allergic reactions in babies.
More serious health affects have been studied and while there is no conclusive evidence to date, it appears as though the chemicals released in disposable diapers could lead to long-term health effects such as asthma
3. Cost Savings:
Disposables. For these calculations, let’s assume that a family needs about 60 diapers a week. In my area disposable diapers cost roughly 23¢ per store-brand diaper and 28¢ for name-brand. This averages to 25.5¢ per diaper. Thus the average child will cost about $1,600 to diaper for two years in disposable diapers, or about $66 a month (60x52x$0.255=$795.60, or $800. $800x2years=$1,600. $1,600÷24=$66 per month).
Average of 8 changes per day over 2 years (8x365x2=5,840). We are using 2 as the average age of transition from diapers to toilet use.
Cloth Diapers. The cost of cloth diapering can vary considerably, from as low as $240 for a basic set-up of Pocket diapers, to $700 or more for organic cotton fitted diapers and wool covers.
