The controversy first started about 20 years ago, when some studies concluded that disposable diapers were  just as environmentally friendly as cloth diapers. Wouldn’t you know it? These same studies were funded by none other than Proctor and Gamble, the company that makes a popular disposable diaper and had the most to loose if the finding were in favor of cloth diapers.

Needless to say, these studies showed that environmental impact of disposable diapers were no worse than that of cloth diapers. Lets think about this for a moment. They claim that disposable diapers filling up our landfills at a rate of about 80 billion diapers a year is no worse than the amount of water and “chemicals” needed to launder cloth diapers. However, the fact is that disposable diapers make up approximately 2%-4% of all waste in the landfills and they are the third largest group of waste products following only paper and food and drink containers. Not to mention that it takes anywhere from 250-500 years for each diaper to biodegrade which depends largely on the amount of air and sunlight to which they are exposed. So each disposable diaper that is thrown in our landfills today has the potential of still being there in the year 2500.

In addition to filling up the landfills, disposable diapers contain another hazard…human waste. Even though every package of disposable diapers states that one should dispose of waste in the toilet prior to throwing away, most people disregard this because it significantly reduces the convenience factor. Imagine, if you will, actually swishing a disposable diaper in the toilet with all the super absorbent polymers inside. When all was said and done, you would have  a very saturated, very heavy diaper…more so than it already was. So even though it violates the World Health Organization’s guidelines, most of the human waste goes into our landfills along with the disposable diaper; where it is estimated that at least 100 intestinal viruses are alive and well. These viruses have the potential of being washed back into our groundwater supply, as well as, being carried right back to us via insects. Environmentally friendly??? I think not!!!

Compare all of these things to the approximately 50 – 70  gallons of water that it takes to launder cloth diapers once every three days. This  is about as much water as it would take to flush the toilet 5 times a day. Factor in that now more and more washers are water efficient (requiring on average 20-40 gallons of water per load), than that number is more than likely obsolete. While we are on the subject, one must also consider than many people who use cloth diapers launder them in environmentally friendly detergent, which has very little impact on the environment. Also the use of chlorine bleach is not recommended for today’s modern cloth diapers, so it is rarely used today.

Another aspect that one needs to consider when evaluating the environmental impact of diapers is the manufacturing process. In 1991, in an independent study by Carl Lehrburger, “Diapers: Environmental Impacts and Lifecycle Analysis “, it was found that manufacturing disposable diapers generates 3 times more waste than cloth diapers. In another study, the Landbank Consultancy, an environmental agency in the UK, concluded, after reviewing the data from environmental studies on diapers, that disposable diapers use 2 times more water and  3 times more energy than their cotton counterparts. They also stated that disposables use 20 times more raw materials and produce 60 times more waste. Not to mention that the emissions from the manufacturing processes of the paper and plastic for the disposable diapers is much more noxious than those of the cotton industry.

I guess what it comes down to is what is your definition of “green”? Is it reduce…reuse….recycle? If so, no one can argue that cloth wins hand down.  The impact that a little bit of water (a renewable resource) and a bit of detergent (especially if it is all natural) in no way compares to impact that disposable diapers have on our environment. The idea that a single use products, like disposable diapers, are just as good for the environment than those that are used over and over again, like cloth diapers, to me is just plain common sense.