Cloth Diapers - Go Green!

 

We were amazingly blessed with our 4th child about 4 years into our "allergy" journey with our 3rd. With a total life style transformation prompted by our 3rd childs severe allergies, I decided to use cloth diapers and once again had the realization of "Why did I not do this sooner"! Yes, disposable diapers are the way of the world it seems.  The convenience makes it hard to consider anything else.  A little research convinced me that the new wave of cloth diapers were just about as convenient, TONS cheaper, safer, and much more environmentally friendly!

I was IN! I purchased about 20 AIO (all in one) style cloth diapers, 1 full size wonderbag, 1 small size for diaper bag, and toilet sprayer. That's  it! 

My daughter has just turned 2 and they are in great condition. Could have been used for several more years. No diaper rash ever, No harmful chemical plus the amazing feeling of doing my part for the planet! Wish I had done it for all my children.

Check out these facts!!:

• In 1988, over 18 billion diapers were sold and consumed in the United States that year.⁴ 

• Based on our calculations (listed below under "Cost: National Costs"), we estimate that 27.4 billion disposable diapers are consumed every year in the U.S.¹³

• The instructions on a disposable diaper package advice that all fecal matter should be deposited in the toilet before discarding, yet less than one half of one percent of all waste from single-use diapers goes into the sewage system.⁴

• Over 92% of all single-use diapers end up in a landfill.⁴
• In 1988, nearly $300 million dollars were spent annually just to discard disposable diapers, whereas cotton diapers are reused 50 to 200 times before being turned into rags.⁴
• No one knows how long it takes for a disposable diaper to decompose, but it is estimated to be about 250-500 years, long after your children, grandchildren and great, great, great grandchildren will be gone.⁵
• Disposable diapers are the third largest single consumer item in landfills, and represent about 4% of solid waste. In a house with a child in diapers, disposables make up 50% of household waste.⁵
• Disposable diapers generate sixty times more solid waste and use twenty times more raw materials, like crude oil and wood pulp.³
• The manufacture and use of disposable diapers amounts to 2.3 times more water wasted than cloth.³
• Over 300 pounds of wood, 50 pounds of petroleum feedstocks and 20 pounds of chlorine are used to produce disposable diapers for one baby EACH YEAR.⁶
• In 1991, an attempt towards recycling disposable diapers was made in the city of Seattle, involving 800 families, 30 day care centers, a hospital and a Seattle-based recycler for a period of one year. The conclusion made by Procter & Gamble was that recycling disposable diapers was not an economically feasible task on any scale.¹⁷
  
  
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