From time to time we get questions
from our San Antonio and Austin diaper service customers about the impact
of cloth diapers on the environment. From the Sierra Club to the
Environmental Defense Fund, environmental experts and activists agree that
cotton diapers are the better environmental diapering choice.
So if you're skeptical about
environmental claims from manufacturers (and even from the diaper service
industry), you can believe the environmentalists. They've seen all the
data and heard all the arguments. They have nothing to gain, yet they
clearly support cloth diapers.
For them, and for us, it's still a
basic idea: Reusable products that have a long life span are a better
environmental choice than single-use products with a short lifespan.
Always have been. Always will.
Supporting Environmental Groups
include:
Environmental Fact
On issues such as solid waste, total
energy use and water consumption, diaper service cotton diapers are softer
on the environment than either home-washed cotton diapers or,
more importantly, single-use, disposable diapers.
The comprehensive study from
Lehrburger- Mullen-Jones reached this conclusion:
"Disposable diapers are shown
to generate significantly more solid waste, (and) to consume greater
quantities of energy and raw materials on a per-diaper-change basis."
This study, hailed by
environmentalists around the country, analyzed diapers from production to
use to disposal.
It indicated that single-use diapers
contribute over seven times as much solid waste as reusable cotton
diapers. Also, the study found that "Commercially laundered cotton
diapers use one-half the energy of home washed and one-third the energy of
disposable diapers. Home laundering uses 2.5 times as much net water per
diaper change than diaper service."
Due to efficient equipment use and
economies of scale, diaper services have lower resource and
environmental impacts than either home-washed or disposable diapers.
The Landbank Consultancy, an
independent British organization commissioned by WEN (Women’s
Environmental Network), analyzed the two “life-cycle” studies
commissioned by P&G (Procter & Gamble), and found them both to be
severely deficient. The Landbank Consultancy used P&G’s own data to
arrive at startling different conclusions:
(Note: For sake of clarity, in the
conclusions below: the British use of the word “nappies” has been
substituted with its American equivalent: “diapers”.)
"In summary form, in comparing
the amount of diapers needed per baby, the environmental impacts are that:
