By Katie
What did you do this weekend? Anything to commemorate Earth Day?
While I did not plant a tree or go clean up my local beach, I did invest in a few more reusable shopping bags and reevaluate some of the other ways I can change my daily habits in order to be more environmentally friendly.
My participation was a far cry from some parents, namely those in 300 different locations who participated in the "Great Cloth Diaper Change" on Saturday evening. These parents who have shunned disposables were trying to raise awareness and set a record for the most cloth diapers changed concurrently.
Last year, the initiative set a record at 5,026 cloth diapers being changed at once. Wow. That's a lot of dirty bottoms. That number is actually LESS than the estimated amount of disposable diapers that a family will go through by the time a child turns two. The numbers for this year have not been released yet but I can imagine they will easily surpass the current record.
I used disposables with my first daughter, and we still use some with my stepdaughter. The plan is to go with cloth diapers this time around and we will see how that goes. I'm not sure if I'm gung ho enough about the environment to forgo convenience. Not to mention the fact that laundry is probably my least favorite chore.
We have two bloggers who are going to weigh in on the cloth diapering issue this week, but I'm curious to hear what other parents have to say about the debate.
What do you think?
You can contact Katie by emailing her at katie@mumblingmommy.com.
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To the mamas who want to use cloth diapers, go for it. Just be aware that they do still affect the environment (all that water and detergent to wash them). There are definitely other advantages to cloth diapers like less money spent in the long term and fewer diaper rashes.
ReplyDeleteI've been using cloth for years and love it, though I do use disposables for going out and/ or as a backup for when I'm running behind on laundry.
ReplyDeleteYes, it's less convenient, but I like the money I save, and it is better for the environment. What people forget about disposables is that the issue is more than just landfills; it takes far more water and energy to *produce* a disposable diaper than it takes to clean a cloth one repeatedly.
Surprisingly, it's also less smelly. Even with a fancy diaper pail, disposables smell awful when dirty. With cloth, you rinse the solid waste off right away, so the diapers in the pail are actually cleaner and less smelly than disposables.
OH! I sooo wanted to go to our local deal but was volunteering for my mom's group thang. What cemented cloth for us was not having the chemicals agains the babies' skin from plastic dipes....tho we do use em, cloth is our mainstay.
ReplyDeleteWith twins, I have found that the free super savers shipping on economy size diapers is a godsend. The diapers seem a little thinner but I have never had a problem with leaking. They have the same stretch tabs on the sides that I liked about honest diapers. I love having these shipped right to my door & always having so many on hand. It's one less thing to worry about carrying when shopping with the kids. They always ship within a couple of days so I just make sure that I order them a few days earlier than when it looks like we'll need them.
ReplyDelete