I wanted to start this blog by saying that in fact, this topic isn't a debate for my husband and I - we are 100% on the side of cloth (that is, at least pre-baby). For me, this is a no brainer because of the sheer amount of waste that disposable diapers create. Can you even fathom how big a pile of 6000 dirty disposable diapers looks like? Because this is how many diapers a baby will go through (on average) from birth to being potty trained. (Okay, if a dirty disposable is approximately 15 cm cubed, then 6000 would take up 90 000 cm cubed, or 90 m cubed. That's one big pile of smelly plastic on your driveway... and spilling over onto your neighbour's. And multiply that by how many children born every year worldwide... YIKES! Mountains and mountains of dirty disposables, which won't decompose for 500 years. Those 1970s disposables are still fully intact today. You can see why this argument is enough for me to run for the cloth diapers).
Did you know that about 60% of a disposable diaper is derived from crude oil? Cloth diapering, then, is one way to release yourself from the world's harmful addiction to oil.
Okay, cloth diapering cuts on the waste, but what about cost? Joy and Rebecca of "The eco-nomical baby guide" estimate $900 for the cheapest disposables (approximately $0.11-0.19) for 6000 diapers, while only $200 for cloth, including supplies and washing expenses. One, however, has to keep in mind that their estimate for washing expenses (only $50 for 2.5 years), is calculated based on using cold wash in a front loader, and only hanging to dry. That might be a little unrealistic for most, so I would say tack on another $100-200 there. Still, in the end, cloth ends up being cheaper than disposable.
But what about the "yuck" factor? Who wants to wash dirty diapers? I know this is probably the factor that throws most parents towards disposables. For me, it can't be worse than what you're already dealing with as a parent... being puked/peed/pooed on!
Obviously, we will be loving the convenience of disposables while travelling, which will be a must. Like I had said before, it's really hard to be perfectly green, 100% of the time, but any amount counts, as far as I'm concerned!
Gooooo cloth!
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