Diapers Cloth vs. Disposable

The Babble Staff

Sylvia Plath spent the last years of her life in a charmingly bohemian flat in London, sans modern plumbing, schlepping bags of dirty diapers to the laundromat. Perhaps things would have turned out differently had she had access to a cloth-diaper service or disposables. However much of the diaper debate is centered on environmental factors — washable cloth diapers are better for the environment because they produce less solid waste, right? Proctor and Gamble, for one, would like you to consider all the water needed to grow cotton for and wash cloth diapers. So what kind of diaper is better for the environment? As evident from the various articles on the subject, you could drive yourself crazy trying to tally the environmental impact using data that vary widely and often come from less than impartial sources. Those in favor of cotton diapers like to point out that cotton is far less toxic to your baby, is cheaper, keeps you more honest about when your baby needs to be changed and, perhaps most importantly, tends to get your child toilet trained at a far earlier age. But, you might ask yourself, isn't it easier and cleaner just to chuck the whole thing when it's soiled. So which is it, washable or disposable?

We think that if you see things from your baby's standpoint, and apply the same standards of comfort and health that you would for your own body, cotton is the obvious choice.

It's a matter of comfort and health. The comfort is something you know about from your own clothing. It stems both from cotton's soft touch on sensitive skin and from its breathability — which ventilates the skin and helps evaporate the potentially irritating ammonia that starts to form as soon as a baby wets. As for cotton's health for babies, it has thousands of years of history behind it. Cotton is the fabric of choice for use directly on the skin. Like its comfort, its natural absorbency is the polar opposite of the combination of paper pulp, plastics, and "superabsorbent" chemicals in disposables. We can provide A to Z testimonials from moms whose babies experienced irritation with disposables that went away immediately with cotton.

Babies diapered with cloth generally toilet train a year earlier than babies diapered with single-use diapers.

Another area of concern are the toxic chemicals present in most single-use diapers. Nearly all single-use diapers use sodium polyacrylate to absorb moisture. Sodium polyacrylate is the same sort of substance that was used in Rely tampons in the mid-1980s. Many consumers notice clear beads of gel on their baby's genitals after a diaper change. This material is sodium polyacrylate.

An additional serious concern is the risk that dioxin, a by-product of the paper-bleaching process, may exist in single-use diapers. Dioxin in various forms has been shown to cause cancer, birth defects, liver damage, and skin diseases.

The negative impact of single-use diapers on the environment goes far beyond the disposal problem. A study prepared by The Landbank Consultancy for The Women's Environmental Network shows that single-use diapers use 3.5 times as much energy, 8 times as much non-regenerable raw materials, and 90 times as much renewable material as cloth diapers.

Single-use diapers are, as their name implies, used once, then discarded. They are almost always sent to landfills or incinerators, never reused and almost never recycled. In contrast, the average cloth diaper is used between 100 and 150 times as a diaper, and then retired. Retired cloth diapers are in high demand and have a second lifecycle as rags for detailing shops, window washing services, janitorial services, piano retailers, and assorted other businesses where soft, lint-free rags are needed.

Clearly, when compared diaper for diaper, cloth has an indisputable economic advantage over single-use diapers. When you consider the fact that most babies diapered using cloth diapers are toilet trained up to a year earlier, the economic advantage of cloth is even more dramatic.

As mentioned earlier, the average babies wearing cloth diapers are toilet trained at 24-30 months, while the average age for babies wearing single-use diapers is 36-42 months. This not only has obvious economic implications, but it is highly significant for your baby's development. Toilet training is an important step on the way to increased competence, confidence, and sense of self. Having an estimated one year less of diapering is a real convenience that the single-use diaper manufacturers can't match.

There is a noticeable increased awareness and interest in cloth diapering as a viable alternative to the short-sighted and wasteful practice of using single-use diapers. This article and its references demonstrate that cloth diapering holds clear and significant health and developmental, environmental, and economic advantages over single-use diapering. Additionally, the convenience of modern cloth diapering rivals the convenience of single-use diapers, particularly when a diaper laundering service is used.

Ultimately, instead of getting bogged down in each side's scientific data, the most commonsense approach is to use common sense. Weigh the impact of manufacturing and disposing of 8,000 paper-and-plastic diapers over the average diapering period of a child versus that of a few dozen cotton diapers, and decide for yourself which is better for the environment.

Babies in disposable diapers may experience more diaper rash; because the diapers feel dry, parents tend to change them as infrequently as every four to five hours. But though the outer layer may appear dry, bacteria from the urine is still present in the baby's diaper, and still comes in contact with the baby's skin. Furthermore, plastic does not "breathe" to let out the ammonia formed in the bacterial breakdown of urine, while a cotton diaper and nylon or wool wrap are breathable, allowing air to circulate to the baby's skin, keeping it healthy.

Of more serious concern are the toxic chemicals present in disposable diapers. Dioxin, which in various forms has been shown to cause cancer, birth defects, liver damage and skin diseases, is a by-product of the paper-bleaching process used in manufacturing disposable diapers, and trace quantities may exist in the diapers themselves.

Superabsorbent diapers contain sodium polyacrylate, which absorbs up to 100 times its weight in water. Sodium polyacrylate is the same substance that was removed from tampons in 1985 because of its link to toxic shock syndrome. No studies have been done on the long-term effects of this chemical being in contact with a baby's reproductive organs 24 hours a day for upwards of two years.

There is, however, a more serious threat of contamination from disposable diapers, because of human sewage going into landfills. Although a diaper service seems like a luxury, in fact it can cost considerably less than using disposables — and home-laundered cloth diapers are, of course, the cheapest alternative of all. Another advantage to cloth diapers is that they usually lead to earlier toilet training because the child actually knows when he or she is wet. Aside from the environmental and health arguments, many parents feel, as I do, that cotton is a purer, softer, simpler choice than paper and plastic, and that if their babies could vote, they'd choose cloth themselves.

The bottom line is that choosing cloth diapers doesn't have to be a daunting prospect — it's simple, it's convenient, it's inexpensive. And it's the best choice you can make for the health of your baby, and of the planet.

The debate between which type of diaper is best is not an easy question to answer. The reusable cloth diaper isn't what it used to be. Some cloth diapers now have double or triple layers and a multiply, fiber-filled strip, making them more absorbent than older styles. Some styles of cloth diapers now come with Velcro strips, eliminating the need for those large safety pins. You can launder them at home or turn the job over to a diaper service.

Keep in mind that each baby is different; some parents will find their baby does perfectly fine with disposables while other parents may find their baby has some type of reaction to disposables. On the other hand, cloth diapers can cause rashes by not being changed enough or properly cleaned and sanitized after becoming soiled. It is all a matter of personal preference, how your baby is reacting to a particular diaper and how you feel about other factors that come into play when deciding between cloth and disposables.

In general, if you compare the cost of the fancier high tech disposable diapers to the cost of laundering your own cloth diapers, you will save money by using cloth diapers and laundering them yourself.

Taking into consideration the following estimates you will probably agree that disposable diapers are much more harmful to the environment than cloth diapers. Finally, when flushing solids from a cloth diaper down the toilet and washing the diapers in a washing machine, the contaminated, dirty water from both toilet and washing machine go into the sewer systems where they are properly treated at wastewater plants. This treated wastewater is much more environmentally friendly than dumping untreated soiled disposable diapers into a landfill.

With the newer style of cloth diapers that are on the market, disposable diapers are not much more convenient that cloth diapers. The new multiple layer, Velcro fastening cloth diapers are just as easy to put on and take off as disposables. Cloth diapers do not really need to be presoaked, or even rinsed out. Flushable liners can be used with cloth diapers that let you lift the soiled liner off the cloth and flush the liner and the poop down the toilet. If you don't use liners, you can just dump the older baby's solids down the toilet. Cloth diapers usually only add about 2 extra loads of laundry a week to your schedule.

Disposables also require fewer changes because of the super absorbent materials; but taking into consideration the increased risks of rash and the extra impact on the environment, your decision should be made with much thought.

The biodegradable disposable diapers [...] aren't much better for the environment or the health of [a] baby than the Huggies and Pampers piled up in landfills.

"These diapers all contain super-absorbent gelling materials," or AGM, said the latest newsletter from cloth diaper service Tiny Tots. "AGM is linked to an increase in childhood asthma and a decrease in sperm count among boys. Environmentally, these diapers require as much water, energy and fuel to produce as any other single-use diaper. The bottom line is they offer no environmental or health benefits.

While it is true that the waste water from washing cloth diapers is benign compared with the sludge of dioxins, solvents and heavy metals in waste water from manufacturing disposable diapers, there is no evidence that sufficient traces of the chemicals remain on the diapers to harm babies. As for the primary feature that gives disposable diapers their appeal — their ability to absorb a large volume of liquid — no studies indicate that sodium polyacrylate, the gel-like absorbent substance used in disposables, harms babies wearing the diapers.

Both Procter & Gamble and the cloth diaper industry took a keen interest in the topic in 1990, the year marking the 20th anniversary of Earth Day. Worried about the environmental impact of soiled diapers in landfills and tree logging to make disposable diapers, 24 states proposed taxing disposables to limit their use. But Procter & Gamble killed those initiatives with hundreds of millions of dollars of lobbying and advertising to consumers. [...] The diaper-producing behemoth also released the first in a series of studies to show that cloth diaper services use up another resource: water.

Manufacturers need water to grow the cotton to make cloth diapers. Diaper services need water to launder the diapers. And parents may need even more laundry water if cloth diapers leak, Procter & Gamble's Kuta said.

"It's amazing to see how different (disposable) diapers are now," Kuta said. "They keep getting better at not leaking. If they don't leak on clothing and bed linens, then you don't end up doing an extra load of laundry, which has an environmental impact."

The cloth-diaper camp responded with its own round of studies showing that not only do disposable diapers require more water in manufacturing, but also more trees, energy and fuel. So-called life-cycle analysis, a science that studies the whole environmental impact of a product from acquiring its raw materials to manufacturing it, shipping it to a store, transporting it home and finally to a landfill, is anything but perfect. Often, scientists are comparing apples to oranges: Is a product that uses more water better than a product that takes up landfill space?

"There are downsides to both," Berkeley's Hayes said. "It's a tossup of which is worst: wasting our water supply or filling up our landfills."

Multiple factors contribute to determining the preferred diaper. A life-cycle assessment by Franklin Associates, Ltd. compared the diapers through [...] fuels used to manufacture the diaper, [...] energy within physical materials, and pollutants. Among cloth diapers, Franklin Associates evaluated the energy used in different laundering techniques: home versus commercially laundered. Though only one diaper is more energy efficient, each has its own environmental advantage.

Despite a higher reuse rate, because the home laundering system is energy intensive, overall [home-laundered cloth diapers] uses more energy than commercially laundered diapers.

Not only do commercially laundered diapers use a third less water through laundering, they also use 30% less energy. Because commercial laundering companies have more efficient washing systems, they use 5,600 MJ a year as opposed to 8,200 MJ. Both of these measures conclude that commercially washed diapers are preferred to home laundered diapers; commercial systems use less water and energy through the laundering process.

Cloth diapers produce 160 kg while disposable diapers produce 260 kg of solid waste.

In terms of volume, disposable diapers produce nearly twice as much solid waste as cloth diapers.

Disposable diapers contribute the least amount, 1.2 kg. The waste from disposable diapers primarily comes from manufacture and fuel related processes. Because of the water usage of cloth diapers, through laundering, sewage and irrigation, cloth diapers produce significantly higher quantities of waterborne waste. Atmospheric waste is produced in the greatest quantity by home laundered systems. They produce 13.6 kg per child per year while commercially laundered systems produce 7.8 kg. Disposable diapers produce 6.8 kg. Home laundered diapers produce more atmospheric waste because washing diapers at home is energy intensive. The laundering process indirectly increases atmospheric emissions from electricity generation. This increase is so significant that home laundered diapers produce more atmospheric waste through laundering, than exhaust from transporting commercial diapers.

With current information, when determining the best diaper through an energy analysis, disposable diapers are preferred. However they produce substantially more solid waste. Cloth diapers produce half as much solid waste but use more water volume and produce more waterborne waste. Evaluating the best diaper depends on local conditions. If in a drought, it's best to use disposable diapers. If the area has landfill problems, it's best to use commercially laundered cloth diapers. If there are air pollution problems, resort to disposable diapers. The best diaper ultimately depends on the community's situation.

Since 95 percent of parents put their children in plastic diapers, it seems a bit of a moot point to analyze which choice is better or worse for the environment.

It is unlikely that people will revert to hand washing diapers, no matter what the answer. The convenience of disposables, combined with busy lives, is too good of a help to pass up, especially because it is hard to keep a child over the age of one dry in cloth diapers. What isn't a moot point, however, is which brand of disposable diaper you choose, for the health of your baby, and the health of the planet in which your baby will grow. If you choose disposable diapers, here is our recommendation:

Seventh Generation's chlorine-free disposable diapers are made with materials that have not been bleached with chlorine, and therefore do not contribute to dioxin in the environment. They also are free of TBT, fragrance, and latex, a common sensitizer.

The specific health, environmental, and economic advantages of disposable diaper products appear to outweigh the more limited advantages of the reusable diaper products. Products with short life spans have recently come under scrutiny because of their solid waste disposal. As a result of analysis, disposable diapers offer distinguishable health and economic advantages over their reusable counterparts. In particular, they offer better protection against diaper dermatitis (diaper rash), while also decreasing the potential spread of infection in day care settings. These benefits are achieved at a lower weekly cost compared to cloth diapers. In terms of environmental considerations, neither disposable nor reusable diapers is clearly superior.

For protection from infection in the home, day care, or other environments, disposable diapers result in reduced opportunities for exposure as compared to reusable diapers. Disposable diapers that incorporate absorbent gelling materials offer better protection from dermatitis (diaper rash) than do other brands of disposable diapers or home-laundered reusable diapers. Studies indicate that the presence of soiled diapers in the solid waste stream does not cause a public health problem. Disposable diapers are generally less costly on a life-cycle basis than their reusable counterparts. Reusable diapers can provide an economic advantage when the cost of labor for home laundering is not considered. Disposable diaper manufacture and use consumes more raw materials than cloth diapers and results in the generation of more post-consumer solid waste. Reusable diaper manufacture and use generates more process solid waste (e.g., wastewater treatment sludge and incinerator ash) than disposable diapers. Reusable diaper manufacture and use consumes more non-renewable energy resources (e.g., oil, gas, and coal) and more renewable energy resources (e.g., wood and hydroelectric). Reusable diaper manufacture and use consumes more water and releases higher levels of total water pollutants. Reusable diaper manufacture and use results in emissions of higher levels of total air pollution.