Diapers, also known as nappies in many parts of the world, have been the subject of great debate in relation to which is a more earth friendly option - disposables or resuable cloth? Having used both, I would have immediately said cloth diapers had less of an environmental impact, but that may not necessarily be the case.
An apparently thorough study carried out by an advisory board to the UK Environment Agency a couple of years ago drew this conclusion - cloth diapers had equal the impact of disposable nappies. I was quite taken aback - how could this be?
When both types of diapers were studied, the *whole* lifecycle of the product was scrutinized - materials, chemicals and energy consumed during production, usage and disposal. The environmental impact categories the diapers were assessed against were climate change, ozone depletion, human toxicity, acidification, fresh-water aquatic toxicity, terrestrial toxicity, photochemical oxidant formation and eutrophication. The resulting report was over 200 pages and can be viewed here (PDF)
To give you some idea of the environmental impact of both reusable cloth and disposable diapers on non-renewable resource depletion and global warming, the study states that over the 2.5 years a child would be in diapers; it would equate to driving a car up to 2200 miles.
Disposable nappies are made from petroleum byproducts and tree products such as fluff pulp. Cloth diapers are usually made from cotton - a pesticide, herbicide, synthetic fertilizer and water intensive crop.
While the study doesn't see too much difference between the two in terms of environmental impact at first glance, I most certainly do when you take into account several observations made. Disposable diapers will most always likely be very unfriendly to the planet, but there are opportunities for minimizing the impact of reusable cloth diaper usage.
The report notes:
"For the home laundered nappy system, the main source of environmental impact is the generation of the electricity used in washing and drying the nappies"
So this presents quite a few opportunities to lessen impact by:
- lowering washing temperatures
- use earth friendly washing detergents effective in cold water
- stock up on diapers and wash only when you have a full load
- refrain from using additional wash enhancers
- air dry diapers
- offset your electricity use with green tags, or switch your electricity supply to a green provider
- reroute washing machine water runoff into your garden or install a greywater recycling system
- don't iron diapers
The other point to note is the diapers in the study were made of cotton, and I assume not organic cotton. The growing of cotton constitutes approximately 25% of the world's insecticide and more than 10% of the pesticide usage. Cotton is the fourth most heavily synthetically fertilized crop globally. The cotton industry has also been responsible for massive environmental disasters such as the destruction of the Aral Sea in Uzbekistan and Kazahkstan.
There are alternatives to "normal" cotton - organic cotton. Better still is hemp. Hemp fabric is said to be three times stronger than cotton, more durable and has a better ability to absorb moisture. I haven't seen 100% hemp diapers around, but you can certainly buy organic cotton/hemp blends - usually around 45% hemp and 55% organic cotton.
In summary, while you can't make disposable nappies "greener", you can certainly have less of an impact on the environment with reusable cloth nappies through careful purchase decisions and proper usage.
Have some earth friendly diaper tips? Please feel free to add them below.
