I read up on the diaper stats these days and quite frankly I was appalled. Apparently each baby in the world will put 1 ton (or 2000 pounds if thats easier to wrap your head around or the size of a honda civic) of disposable diapers into landfills... and then those diapers will take 400 years to biodegrade. hmmph, how can I do that to mother earth?? I just dont feel good about it so I'm pulling away from those oh-so convenient little things. What I'm realizing is what is convenient in life is also expensive and wasteful. I see so many people these days using reusable shopping bags, reusable coffee mugs and water jugs... why not reusable diapers? Maybe its because its something others cannot see you doing.. not as if moms go around bragging that they are saving the environment by choosing cloth... but a big green reusable bag however is the new staple accessory screaming "look at me! I care about my planet!"... or how about all those "green" products that are designed to keep harmful chemicals out of our environment or even the organic veggies keeping pesticides out of our bodies and our homes... why are people so quick to jump on those band-wagons but have no clue about the effect of disposable diapers on our environment? (fyi-sposies are made with chemicals that are bad for baby AND the planet).
Disposable diapers first became popular in the 1940's... so obviously for many many years before then, mommas were handling dirty diapers in other ways besides taking them off and tossing into the trash. In Elizabethan days diapers were made of fabric and left on for days and days (eww!), at one point diapers were boiled to kill germs, they've had plastic covers and sharp safety pins to keep them closed. These days cloth diapers are truly amazing... They velcro or snap shut, they are soft as ever and wash easily. The cuteness factor alone is enough to want to cloth diaper your precious babe. Yes its intimidating when you first start but once you've tried a few and found a favorite.. you get addicted.. I'm officially addicted to the cloth.
Why I love em:
They are so stinkin cute... the color & pattern options are endless
They are soft on Adam's lil tush... sposies are papery, cloth are soft and cushy.
I'm not putting any trash into my planet
I dont have to worry about running out of diapers... I just pop em in the washer and within an hour or so I have clean diapers!
and heres the $$$ part- sposies cost about .22 cents each. I was using about 6 sposies a day x 30 days in a month, 180 diapers a month x .22 cents = $39 a month. Most kids wear diapers for 2 years so that comes out to a grand total of $936 on diapers in two years... Plus over 4000 diapers went would be sitting in landfills. I'm also planning to have another child so if I chose to just be lazy and use disposables we're talkin over $1800 and 8000 diapers in a landfill. Three children, $2700 and 12,000 diapers in a landfill and so on.
Now a good cloth diaper stash is about 20 diapers... they can cost anywhere from $5-$30 each. The ones I buy are about $15 each so $15x20= $300 and I can reuse these diapers for baby #2! Just there I've saved over $600 ($1200 with 2 kids, $1800 with 3 kids and so on!) and I've saved a lil space in a landfill :) who am I kidding, I would have saved one whole TON of space in a landfill! yay me!
And dont think I havent thought about the energy and water it takes to wash these diapers myself... I have. Bottom line is it costs about .50 cents per load and I use the smallest load setting therefore using the smallest amount of water possible.
So I'm feeling pretty proud... I know I'm only one person but heck, if we all do something small, it amounts to something great. Disposable diapers are easy.. but wasteful. We all need to do our part in reducing trash on our planet and cloth diapers are a great place to start...
Adam in cloth!
look how cute they are!!
