Diaper
Environmental impact of cloth versus disposable diapers

An average child will go through several thousand diapers in their life. Since disposable diapers are discarded after a single use, usage of disposable diapers increases the burden on landfill sites, and increased environmental awareness has led to a growth in campaigns for parents to use reusable alternatives such as cloth or hybrid diapers. An estimated 27.4 billion disposable diapers are used each year in the US, resulting in a possible 3.4 million tons of used diapers adding to landfills each year. A discarded disposable diaper takes approximately 450 years to decompose.

The environmental impact of cloth as compared to disposable diapers has been studied several times. In one cradle-to-grave study sponsored by the National Association of Diaper Services (NADS) and conducted by Carl Lehrburger and colleagues, results stated that disposable diapers produce seven times more solid waste when discarded and three times more waste in the manufacturing process. In addition, effluents from the plastic, pulp, and paper industries are believed far more hazardous than those from the cotton -growing and -manufacturing processes. Single-use diapers consume less water than reusables laundered at home, but more than those sent to a commercial diaper service. Washing cloth diapers at home uses 50 to 70 gallons (approx. 189 to 264 litres) of water every three days, which is roughly equivalent to flushing the toilet 15 times a day, unless the user has a high-efficiency washing machine. An average diaper service puts its diapers through an average of 13 water changes, but uses less water and energy per diaper than one laundry load at home.

In October 2008, "An updated lifecycle assessment study for disposable and reusable nappies" by the UK Environment Agency and Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs stated that reusable diapers can cause significantly less (up to 40 per cent) or significantly more damage to the environment than disposable ones, depending mostly on how parents wash and dry them. The "baseline scenario" showed that the difference in green-house emissions was insignificant (in fact, disposables even scored slightly better). However, much better results (emission cuts of up to 40 per cent) could be achieved by using reusable diapers more rationally. "The report shows that, in contrast to the use of disposable nappies, it is consumers' behaviour after purchase that determines most of the impacts from reusable nappies. Cloth nappy users can reduce their environmental impacts by:

There are variations in the care of cloth diapers that can account for different measures of environmental impact. For example, using a cloth diaper laundering service involves additional pollution from the vehicle that picks up and drops off deliveries. Yet such a service uses less water per diaper in the laundering process. Some people who launder cloth diapers at home wash each load twice, considering the first wash a "prewash", and thus doubling the energy and water usage from laundering. Cloth diapers are most commonly made of cotton. "Conventional cotton is one of the most chemically-dependent crops, sucking up 10% of all agricultural chemicals and 25% of insecticides on 3% of our arable land; that's more than any other crop per unit." This effect can be mitigated by using organic cotton or other materials, such as bamboo and hemp.

Another aspect to consider when choosing between disposable diapers and cloth diapers is cost. It is estimated that an average baby will use from $1,500 to $2,000 or more in disposable diapers before being potty-trained. In contrast, cloth diapers, while initially more expensive than disposables, if bought new cost about $100 to $300 for a basic set, although costs can rise with more expensive versions. The cost of washing and drying diapers must also be considered. The basic set, if one-sized, can last from birth to potty-training.

Another factor in reusable cloth diaper impact is the ability to re-use the diapers for subsequent children or sell them on. These factors can alleviate the environmental and financial impact from manufacture, sale and use of brand-new reusable diapers.
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