Cloth, disposable, or both?

Before I launch into my dissertation on diapers, I'd like to take just a minute to talk about why I'm so concerned about protecting the planet.

As a mother and mother-to-be, I'm not just worried about global climate change. My angst at this point has little to do with wondering if my inland house will someday be a beachfront villa (I've always wanted a beach house, but that's not how I hope to get it). It has to do with having some peace about the future overall health and happiness of my children.

Let's face it, at a bare minimum human beings need food and water to survive. And, guess what, that food and water needs to be NOT poisoned (call me crazy, but I'm pretty sure this isn't just the hormones talking). I don't want my children to suffer from the effects of previously unrecognized neurotoxins that have seeped into the groundwater from tons of diaper "goo" that were deposited in landfills -- just because I, and others like me, took the easier road.

And I'm not saying that using disposable diapers is evil or that no one should do it. I used them with my first baby and there's a good chance I'll use them again. What I'm saying is that when I make that decision, I want to make an informed and ethical decision.

Trust me, I've made plenty of uninformed decisions in my life. Case in point, I had a baby in the first place (why doesn't anyone tell you how hard this child-rearing thing really is? Why?! Oh yeah, that survival of the species thing.) I just want to put some factual basis behind this particular decision.

In doing some research on the subject, I came across an assessment of a 1992 study by Franklin Associates that really caught my interest and made sense to me.

The study looks at not just the energy, water and landfill waste produced once the diapers hit the store shelves, but also what it takes to make them in the first place. The study concluded that using disposable diapers uses 29% less energy than home-laundered cloth diapers and 20% less than commercially-laundered diapers. And home-laundered diapers use 30% more energy than commercially-laundered diapers (and a lot more water, too).

From a solid waste perspective, however, disposables create nearly twice the landfill tonnage as cloth diapers, which you probably guessed. And some of that waste is the "goo" I mentioned earlier. (The goo is an absorbent polymer called sodium polyacrylate -- currently considered non-toxic, though some studies have linked it to severe allergic reactions in some children.)

All of this information was pretty much on par with what I expected to learn about those diapering choices. What I hadn't considered was the increased waterborne and atmospheric waste from cloth diapers. Nor had I given much thought to the chemicals used in making disposables so white (lots and lots of chlorine) and absorbent. And I still have other important math to do. After all, my pocketbook is not a bottomless pit of money, either.

Would it be cowardly to hedge my bets? What if I use the cloth diapers with flushable inserts (less rigorous washing required) at home and unbleached disposables (fewer chemicals in the manufacturing process) at daycare? Is it acceptable to spread the environmental pain? There are always sacrifices I can make in other areas to help balance my choices, too. Maybe I'll resolve to wash and reuse all my freezer bags and shorten my showers.

In my diaper dilemma, the jury (the jury being my mind) is still out. But I will leave you with the one surefire way I know of to save diapering resources (time, money, water, energy -- oh, and sanity): potty train as soon as humanly possible.

Check out ilea.org for an assessment of the Franklin Associates study.