Diapering your baby shouldn’t cause such a big stink, but in this day and age, what doesn’t? If you’re wrenching your hands over disposable vs cloth, many feel that the up-front financial investment is a savings in the long-run. Some estimate that disposable diapers can add up to $1500-2500 depending on how long before baby is potty trained.
Non-biodegradable disposable diapers add to our collective trash heaps to an astonishing degree. “After newspapers and food or beverage containers, they’re the largest source of solid waste in landfills,” according to Green Living Handbook. Bio-degradable diapers are of course a step in the right direction, but die-hard enviro guy and dolls choose cloth — preferably from organic cotton, wool or hemp.
Recommended reading: Diapering the Earthy Baby, by Tabitha Tucker, on EarthFamily.com.
100% certified organic Egyptian cotton diapers, with front velcro closure. $12.0/each From California-based, UnderTheNile.com – Be sure to get a Diaper Cover which annoyingly, is not available on this site.
Diaper Covers are available from GreenMountainDiapers.com which also sells a great assortment of organic cloth diapers, including wool. Their new to cloth write-up outlines important cost variables.
Ecobaby.com – offers a good selection of organic cotton and wool diapers, including swim diapers.
Tiny Birdsong Organic features tie-nappies, side snaps, prefolds and flats in organic cotton, fleece, velour, bamboo or hemp. As baby grows, Tiny Birdsong can also supply training underpants and swim diapers.
And when you’re in a pinch, there’s a good selection of chlorine-free and gel-free disposables available from tendercarediapers.com. When you use these, consider that Green Living Handbook also reports “A 1990 study concluded that cloth diapers used twice as much energy and four times as much water as disposables, and created greater air and water pollution than disposables.” So the debate continues.
My take on it is this — use bamboo, hemp or organic cotton diapers whenever possible. And use a non chlorine treated, gel-free disposable if you happen to be traveling and cloth diapers prove to be a bit impractical. Overall, I believe that cloth is better for baby’s skin, the environment and your wallet.
RSS
