Reasons to Switch to Cloth: Reason #1, The Environment, Part Two

The Environment, Part Two:

In my last post I talked about the effect disposable diapers have on the landfill. Today I'd like to discuss other environmental factors (some more health and economy concerns) related to the use of disposable diapers.

Lets talk about poo. Did you know that the instructions on a disposable diaper package advise that fecal matter is disposed of in the toilet before depositing the diaper in the trash? I didn't know this until someone pointed it out to me. I don't know a single person who does this. Let's talk about why this is advised.

Putting poo in the lanfdill is both a health and environmental hazard. "Leachate containing viruses from human feces (including live vaccines from routine childhood immunizations) can leak into the Earth and pollute underground water supplies. In addition to the potential of groundwater contamination, air-borne viruses carried by flies and other insects contribute to an unhealthy and unsanitary situation. These viruses could include Hepatitis A, Norwalk and Rota Virus (for source see #2 below)." We should NOT be intermingling raw sewage with solid waste.

Did you know that by buying disposable diapers you are increasing our reliance on oil (a non-renewable resourse)? Sounds funny, how could using a disposable diaper have any effect on my use of oil?

Well, disposable diapers are made with a waterproof polyethylene outer layer and water-repellent liner...in simple terms this is plastic. It is estimated that it takes 1/3 cup of crude oil to produce the plastic for 1 disposable diaper! This means that if you use diposables until your child is 3 (average 60 diapers per week) you will be using 3,120 cups of crude oil (in the form of disposable diapers) per child. In a broader sense, as a population we use 3.4 BILLION GALLONS of crude oil per year just to manufacture disposable diapers.

Why is it that we care about reducing our use of plastic at the grocery store (something we do about once a week) but give little or no thought when we change our baby's diaper (about six times a day!)?

Next time you empty your Diaper Genie, please consider how that diaper sausage that you are bringing out to the trash will effect the general health and well being of our world.

More soon...


Sources:
#1 GDiapers website http://www.gdiapers.com/happy-planet/great-debate/disposable-diapers
#2 http://libaware.economads.com/ddiapermyth.php