Encouraging the Use of Cloth Nappies

A key factor that is underconsidered in such campaigns is that disposable nappies make baby feel drier for longer than cloth nappies. Many parents give up on cloth nappies when they discover that they can get more sleep at night with disposable nappies. So encouraging parents to use one or two disposables overnight and cloth during the day can lead to more sustained use of cloth nappies. Why only cloth OR disposable? What about hybrid systems - reusable outers with either washable or biodegradable pads/ liners? http://www.realnappycampaign.com/ http://www.eenee.com/

Cameron

Have there been any studies done comparing the environmental impact of cloth vs. disposable nappies (diapers for us in the US)? Disposables have plastics production and end-of-life solid waste issues, while cloth ones use copious amounts of water to wash them, energy to heat the water and power the dryers, and typically use plastic pants to cover them, which have plastics production issues as well. I'm curious to see if anyone's done a comparison.

Mary Morse

Associate Environmental Services Specialist
City of San Jose Watershed Protection
170 W. San Carlos Street,
San Jose CA 95113
phone: 408-277-2767
fax 408-277-5775

Hello,

There are likely some serious barriers to using cloth diapers. In my own experience, we decided to use cloth and found that they leak, they smell, they are harder to put on, harder to use in public (what do you do with the dirty one?), involve more washing, and since they are less absorbent there is increased danger of rash (especially in hot wet climates like mine), etc. So we gave up on them even though I know full well the issues surrounding the disposables. If the barriers were great enough to prevent someone predisposed to do it, they will likely be difficult to overcome for those who aren't so disposed (no pun intended). I'd suggest working through those barriers in a targeted way. Perhaps refocusing on the root issue-- disposing of nondegradable one-use items-- would lead to alternative strategies instead of merely increasing cloth usage. Perhaps the hybrid option, or a fully and rapidly degradable disposable diaper...maybe one already exists.
 

Hi All -

I understand the sustainable behavior problems in dealing with cloth nappies (that's such a cute term to be-diapered American ears) - but out of the hundreds of thousands of years of human history, plastic nappies have only been around for the past fifty or so. What did the other teeming masses of humanity do until then? What do today's billions of people going around having kids but no access to or money for plastic nappies do, anyway? After all, we have ample evidence that their babies make it past the nappy or nappy-equivalent years. We know that civilization as currently constituted is heading straight for the Great Nappy in the Sky. Maybe the pre-plastic folks know something we don't. Maybe we should ask them, and soon. Peak Nappies are close behind Peak Oil anyway.

Cheers,
Adam

AFAIK, one of the main advantages of diapers from the parents' viewpoint is that the kids potty train earlier, sometimes several months. Or so my parent friends who have transitioned from disposables to diapers tell me. They all think that is a major benefit.

Bob Waldrop, OKC

Hi there,

Here is quick summary from a mother of a two-year old about her experience with cloth diapers. She ordered them over the internet as this brand was not available in any stores locally (including Vancouver) at the time her daughter was born. Hi Emma, These are excellent, Canadian-made diapers. We used all cloth for year 1 unless we were on the road/traveling. Lauren slept through the night in them no problem. After year one, I found it really challenging dressing her for daycare because none of her pants would fit over the cloth diapers. However, by year one you're using far fewer diapers per day anyway. http://www.mother-ease.com/ Lauren's mother has a more detailed description of their experience that she has shared with other new parents considering cloth diapers.

Regards,
Emma DalSanto
TDM Planner Resort Municipality of Whistler
[email protected]

There are some recyclable versions emerging http://www.myplanet.com.au/RecyclingProcess/
A reused plastic bag keeps dirty cloth nappies inoffensive if you're out. You can flush the organic content if you happen to be in a nappy change area with a toilet. There's washing and there's washing. The key thing for parents to remember is the sun is a far better antiseptic than any amount of hot water or chemicals. If it can kill Golden Staph, it can kill any germs a healthy baby might produce. May the sleep be with you, o carers of younglings.

Susan Pyke

Sustainability Victoria
T: 03 8626 8792
F: 03 9663 1007
Level 28, 50 Lonsdale Street,
Melbourne 3000
www.sustainability.vic.gov.au

Nardene,

In giving the matter some thought, this is what I realized about my cloth versus disposable decisions. My 3 sons are approximately 3 years apart and during the nappy stage there were different barriers/incentives to using cloth diapers depending on our circumstances. I hope this gives you some insight into some of the factors parents weigh when making the decision.

1. We used disposables when we didn't have ready access to a washer. (We lived in a condo with coin operated washing machines.) Plus, I had no clue how to manage cloth diapers, even though I did have several friends who used cloth so there was no social taboo against. I remember sitting in the church nursery talking to other mothers about whether or not to go cloth. I decided against it just because I thought it would cost too much to lay in a supply of diapers and do 3 - 4 extra loads of wash and dry a week. It seemed like a lot of work and not much benefit.

2. We used cloth when we were broke. I was in the store buying diapers and realized that for about the same price as a pack of disposables, I could buy several cloth, pins and plastic pants. By then, we had a washer and I was able to jerry rig a line in the basement. I was in the same community and still had friends who cloth diapered. Shortly thereafter, we moved to South Africa. There, they had a neat bucket system where you would swish a soiled diaper in the toilet and then drop it into the bucket with some sort of powder solution in it. I never did find out what the powder was. According to the manufacturer, the nappies just needed a rinse and a good drying and they were ready to go again. My American sensibilities made me run them through the wash again (I know, I know). There was a social norm of using cloth in the RSA (this was 17 years ago, I can't speak for now). Few people had a dryer at least in Jo'burg so line drying was Just What One Did. I can attest to the fact that the cloth nappy child potty trained the earliest. I don't recall him having diaper rash more or less frequently than the others.

3. We used disposables when I worked outside the home, even though I was able to keep my son with me. Sometimes, at a job you just can't drop everything to attend to a leak. This was my third child and between running after three children aged 6 and under, working and being in a better financial position where cloth wasn't a necessity, I opted for disposables real fast. Plus, I didn't know anyone else using cloth then and the selection of cloth for purchase in my rural area was not very broad. Another consideration; I didn't have to use daycare but I've heard that daycare providers are not eager to accept children in cloth diapers partly for the more frequent changing required, partly for health contamination concerns. In reviewing my situation through my CBSM glasses, I think that financial incentives/benefits, social norm and availability of resources (time, emotional "energy", washer, good cloth diapers) influenced my decisions most in that order. While I wouldn't base a whole outreach campaign on this one case study, this may give you a place to start in conducting surveys about the barriers to cloth nappy use.

Regards,
Anne

Anne Lewis
I&E Project Administrator Project WET SD
805 W. Sioux Ave. ~
Pierre, SD 57501 ~
605-224-8295
www.sd-discovery.com

The Union of Concerned Scientists covered the cloth vs. disposable nappie/diaper question in their 1999 book, "The Consumer's Guide to Effective Environmental Choices." There may be further information on their website. What they found was that, cradle to grave, any environmental benefit of one over the other is so slight that it's too close to call. They recommend focusing on other choices which have a greater impact. I really appreciated this book, which sorts through all those "1,000 things to do to save the planet" suggestions you see tossed around.

Katherine (Kate) Huntman Melby

Emmet County
Department of Public Works
200 Division Street,
Petoskey MI 49770
231-348-0640
FAX 231-348-0633
[email protected]
www.EmmetRecycling.org

Some of your readers may be interested in this firm, based in this firm based in Portland, OR http://www.gdiapers.com/ They have some good info on there site about pros, cons, practicalities etc.

Cheers
Nick

Nick Southall MSc BSc
Environmental Scientist
1020 Wasco St, Suite I,
Hood River, OR 97031
Tel: (541) 386-9003
Fax: -9241
www.interfluve.com

Hello all,

While we all seem to have opinions and anecdotal reasons why one method is better than the other, we are failing to address the central questions. What are the programs promoting cloth diaper (sorry, being American I must use the term "diaper") use, and are there any studies comparing the environmental impact of cloth vs. disposable? In terms of official programs, a casual internet search did not turn up any government-sponsored cloth diaper promotional program. The cloth diaper vendors and diaper service appear to be marketing cloth diapers without any government assistance. Apparently several studies have been done on the subject, though I haven't had the opportunity to review them in depth. Many people quote a study done by the Landbank Consultancy in the UK back in the early 1990s which pegged cloth as the environmentally superior material. Another more recent, UK-specific study was done by the UK Environment Agency and can be found at http://www.environment-agency.gov.uk/commondata/acrobat/nappies_1072099.pdf This study concludes "For the three nappy systems studied, there was no significant difference between any of the environmental impacts * that is, overall no system clearly had a better or worse environmental performance, although the life cycle stages that are the main source for these impacts are different for each system." Furthermore, some websites I found have their own comparisons of the two materials. An example is provide below. http://www.realdiaperassociation.org/diaperfacts.php

While I did not research the legitimacy of their sources, they at least provide sources. Interestingly, I went to the Pampers and Huggies websites, expecting to find studies of why disposables are so much better for the environment, but found no such studies. I suppose that the convenience provided by disposables affords them the luxury of not having to visit the issue at this time. There's some lunch-break research for you.

Patrick Carter

A couple of local councils here in Victoria (Australia) have been trialling disposable nappy recycling schemes. As far as I know a recycler collects them and recycles the plastic content and then composts the organic content (possibly including the liner). I'm not sure how successful they've been, but you could probably find more information by contacting the Metropolitan Waste Management Group (a state government body) at [email protected]

Regards,
Rob Powell.

Robert Powell LIEP Co-ordinator
B Eng (Mech)(Hons) M Env Sc
Tel. 9797 1791
Fax. 9239 5196
Mob. 0400 184 047
PO Box 200,
Dandenong, Vic. 3175
www.greaterdandenong.com

Hello,

I agree with Cameron--we gave up on cloth in a couple of months too. Paper diapers have been extremely liberating to busy working parents and daycares with multiple children to dipe. We wouldn't want to go back to the kinds of sanitation conditions that served those masses of humanity in the past or still present in parts of the world, even though getting rid of plumbing and going back to outhouses would save lots of water. Pushing ahead to new nappy technology seems much more reasonable, just like water-saving plumbing technologies. A disposable/biodegradable inner and washable outer sound like the best future.

Sally Mayasich, M.S.
Senior Ecologist AMEC
Earth and Environmental Mpls, MN USA

Maybe just increasing the price of disposable diapers would be incentive enough for more parents to choose clothe as alternative? We were living in small town Labrador 5 years ago when my first born came along. We had already decided to try cloth diapers (for many reasons). We were surprised to see that cloth diapers were quite popular in this area simply because disposable ones were SO costly ( no Walmart or Zellers within 8 hour drive...). We tried many different types and brands (that were handed down to us) and were very pleased with this product www.mother-ease.com. We hought the 'Sandy's' diaper with air flow cover) and proceeded to purchase our supply from this company. I have recommended them to other parents and know that they are equally as pleased. We didn't have any problems with leakage and Tarik slept thru the nite with these. One upside of cloth diapers is that when your child is old enough for toilet training it does happen quickly because the child won't likely enjoy sitting in a wet/dirty diaper.

Tina

Hi Sally -

With respect to sewage disposal, quite the contrary. Getting rid of centralized plumbing is an urgent task, not only because of the increasing costs of water and moving it and processing it, but also because centralizing the waste is a serious toxic problem. I suspect that most of the prior masses of humanity dealt with sewage just fine. There's plenty of room for sustainable, low-density populations to dispose of their wastes, just as other animals do. The problems came along with our species "success" and resulting overpopulation, and more recently with globalized efforts to structurally adjust the world for the economic benefit of a few, driving self-sufficient rural residents into squashed and squalid cities. We now have a cheaper and effective alternative in the form of composting toilets, which are available for use in city and country, for institutional as well as home use. The waste stays on the premises, and an adult's annual composted solid contributions amount to about a pound of rich, odorless soil. The issue is most pertinent to this list, I think, because the difficulty is changing attitudes towards waste disposal, not one of technology or costs. BTW, there are composting toilets that look and act just like regular ones as far as the user is concerned (including a satisfying low-flow "flush" if you must).

Cheers,
Adam

Hi everyone

Thanks so much to everyone that responded with comments and info about cloth nappies. I would like to do a summary if I may. I have been doing a bit of research on this topic, as I feel quite passionate about it. Adam is right, weve only used nappies fairly recently in the scheme of things, and its still really only the western world that uses nappies. Traditionally we responded to our babies cues to when they need to go to the toilet and acted accordingly. This is known as Elimination Communication. Babies were/are carried predominately by the mother and so cues were easier to read. However, in the western world, we tend to push our babies in prams, and, more recently, drive them around in cars, ignoring their cues to go. Babies have no option but to go in the nappies we put on them. However, there are more and more western people learning about Elimination Communication and I recently met a woman who has three children and didnt use nappies on any of them. Here are some links for further information about this technique: http://parenting.ivillage.com/tp/tppotty/0,,48lq,00.html http://www.naturalfamilyonline.com/5-diap/42-infant-potty-training.htm
I imagine most western families will not go down this path however. Looking at only the economic reasons to use cloth over disposables, it is clear that cloth are cheaper than disposables.. It is estimated that one child will use about 6 000 nappies before it is toilet trained. Even if disposables are 50c a nappy, that is still $3000 spend on nappies. If you have more than one child, then you can reuse cloth nappies, potentially saving thousands of dollars, with cloth set up costs between $500 - $1000. I realise that the cost of disposables is a weekly cost that is spread out over the course of time, while buying cloth nappies is a one off cost you generally have to pay up front, which can put people off. It seems to me the biggest barriers to people using cloth nappies is the perception they are a lot of work, while disposables are easy; they don't work as well as disposables; will give the baby nappy rash; and the sheer confusion over the different number of modern nappy systems. A lot of people were bought up wearing cloth nappies before disposables were around. Perhaps in relation to disposables cloth nappies arent so effective and easy, but if we didnt have disposables, we would just get on with it and use cloth. I must admit there is a wide variety of modern cloth nappies to choose from which can be confusing. For example here are a list of some websites: http://www.realnappies.co.nz/ http://www.fuzzibunz.co.nz/fuzzibunz
http://www.nappydays.co.nz/website/index.html http://www.poopeepants.co.nz/
http://www.naturalparenting.co.nz/
Until cloth nappies are the norm and used in birthing centres, hospitals and day care centres (thanks to Marcia for letting me know of a hospital and child care centre that does this), disposables will always be more popular. Especially if even those people more likely to using cloth end up using disposables! Whether you use cloth or disposables, it will have an environmental impact. For example in our case, we use more water and more power. However, disposable nappies use 3.5 times more energy, 8 times more non-renewable raw materials and 90 times more renewable materials than washable nappies. It takes as much energy to produce one throwaway nappy as it does to wash a cloth nappy 200 times. Disposables produce 2.3 times more waste water (at the production stage) and 60 times more solid waste than washable nappies one baby in disposables will produce 2 tonnes of solid waste! Once in the ground disposables reportedly take at least 75, and possibly as long as 500, years to break down. 1.3 million trees and over half a billion cups of crude oil per year go into making the disposable nappies used in New Zealand. Wearing cloth nappies could also be better for your baby's health. There have been no long-term studies into the effects on skin of constant exposure to the polyacralyte super-absorbent gels found in most disposable nappies, but which were deemed unsafe and removed from tampons in 1985. Some other web sites to check out are: http://www..greens.org.nz/searchdocs/other7493.html Womens Environmental Network (WEN) website: http://www.wen.org.uk/nappies/index.htm WEN runs the Real Nappy Project to raise awareness about the environmental impact of nappies and to ensure that parents and adults with incontinence have a fair choice. We encourage the use of washable cotton nappies to reduce waste and the impact on the environment. People should have the information they need about real nappies in order to make a fair and informed choice. With regards to studies comparing cloth to disposables, WEN in their resources section have lots of reports and publications that might be useful: http://www.wen.org.uk/nappies/resources.htm Regarding compostable disposables, my understanding is that if people put them in landfill, the conditions are not right for them to break down properly: they need to be composted in the right environment. Finally, in order to foster sustainable behaviour regarding nappies, once parents start using disposables, it is generally too hard for them to change to using cloth. Cloth use needs to happen from the beginning or it wont happen at all. However, there are lots of organizations and people out there doing their best to reduce nappy waste and once again, thanks to those that responded and I hope this information is useful and thought provoking for others grappling with this issue.

All the best
Nardene

Thanks to Nardene for such an informative and comprehensive summary of our Nappy Notes. It seems to me that the central sustainable behavior element in all of this, and the real challenge, is having far fewer children (whom I dearly love) in the first place. There are simply far too many of us. Any ideas on sustainable population limitation? The alternative to willingly limiting our own growth is a quote cited in my latest blog entry, "Terra Tostada": "Mother nature always comes to the rescue of a society stricken with the problems of overpopulation, and her ministrations are never gentle," from Alfred W. Crosby, _Ecological Imperialism: The Biological Expansion of Europe, 900 - 1900_, Cambridge University Press, 1986, p. 92. Unfortunately global warming is coming to the rescue of a bloated world population. If you haven't seen the Climate Chronicles blog yet, I would be most appreciative of your comments: http://www.constitution411.org/climate

Thx!
Adam

Hi Adam,

This is exactly what I'm talking about. Composting toilets (and also incinerating ones) are a forward-moving technology that not only avoids health hazards and is convenient, but also environmentally friendly. There really WAS a problem with sewage (e.g. the tossing of chamber pots into the streets, etc.) and is a problem with overpopulation that leads to health outbreaks. I well know the problems of sewage, as my husband is the environmental director at the local sanitary district plant. They encourage whatever sewage-eliminating and water-saving system that people can install. However, we will not soon reverse over-population problems, but can move forward with new and better technologies. As shown in lots of these emails, cloth is not necessarily more environmentally friendly than disposable diapers, so what we really need is a new diaper paradigm. Some folks have been ringing in with what sounds like some good alternatives, but not widely available. I think THAT is what we need to promote.

Best to all,
Sally

I have resisted emailing my thoughts on cloth diapers until now since the original inquiry pertained to programs that encouraged the use of cloth diapers. I know of none. However, I am a mom who does the hybrid system, and I've been very happy with that decision. We use cloth during the day, and disposables at night and on the road. We do use the rice liners in the cloth to avoid having to rinse the diapers in the toilet. Though there are many barriers to the use of cloth diapers, I think many of them could be addressed through a program without too much difficulty. (At least no more than any other CBSM program.) I mainly want to address the general lack of knowledge about cloth diapers.

One of my difficulties in going the cloth diaper route was choosing which diaper to use. When I first started looking, I wasn't familiar with all the terminology- pocket diapers, all in one, etc. Even once I figured it out, I was confused about why there were so many options and what the various benefits would be. Which should I pick? It was a bit overwhelming. I ended up buying both FuzziBunz and MotherEase. I hardly use the ME anymore, but LOVE the FuzziBunz. That was an expensive experiment. I prefer the all in one diapers just because there is one less step in putting the diaper on. Plus (and this is a big one), I wanted to hang my diapers dry to maximize the enviro benefit and reduce the cost of using cloth. My ME were always stiff after hanging dry, but the FB were ready to go. My daughter has recently been enrolled in daycare (home setting). I started off sending only disposables for during the day. However, I asked Heather if she would try out the cloth diapers. If she didn't like them, we could go back to disposable. She loves them too! She went on and on about them. She even gave her husband a demonstration. I think she was worried about the gross-ness factor, but she likes the cloth better than the disposable in that area too. She gets to flush the gross-ness instead of just putting in a smelly pail.

That was a long way of saying, I think if parents could just try out different diapering systems on a trial basis for a week or so the adoption of cloth diaper use would go up. A lot of the general population still thinks of pins and folding diapers when you say cloth diapers. If people do start to look into it, the number of options can be a bit overwhelming. It's harder to get over that barrier bc so few stores actually carry cloth diapers, so you can't go and "play" with any of the options.

Re: the environmental debate, Mothering magazine has addressed this topic several times over the years. I have attached a link to one of the more recent articles below. However, I quick search from their home page (mothering.com) will reveal several others. http://www.mothering.com/guest_editors/quiet_place/138.html One last thing to consider. I haven't seen anyone mention the diaper-free method. Now, I'm not crazy. I don't think we can get people to stop using diapers. However, this can be implemented as part of a hybrid system. Unfortunately, I didn't do this (and I wish I had), but I think this would really aid in early potty training. I have read where parents will take their children to the toilet when they notice them giving the "I'm about to go" look. It would have been easy enough to do for my daughter when she was younger, and had a very distinct look when she was about to poop. Like I said, I missed that window of opportunity, but plan to try it for our next one.

Angela Poe Dossett
Graduate Student
School of Communication
The Ohio State University Columbus, OH

There is a correlation between using disposable diapers and later testicular cancer in men. The article I saw awhile back stated that men whose mothers used disposable diapers on them were at greater risk of getting testicular cancer, than the men whose mothers used cloth diapers. It was theorized that this may be due to the fact that disposables hold more liquid, so are not changed as frequently as cloth. They then get warmer than cloth and this heats up the little boys scrotums hotter than is healthy. This was found to be especially problematic when the baby boys had a fever, and their bodies were overheated in addition to the heat inside the diapers. Mothers might consider this correlation when deciding whether to use cloth or disposable, and/or to be more careful about changing the disposables more often, especially on babies with fevers. The labels on the diaper packages are for baby weights, not liquid-containing capacity of the disposables. There is also new evidence that plastic leaks two carcinogens and hormone-mimickers into food products, including bisphenol A and phthalates. When exposed to warm liquids inside a plastic diaper placed directly against the rapidly-growing skin of a human baby, do these chemicals also leach through the skin? Recent studies of the human genome show that exposure to chemicals and stresses can permanently affect both an individual's DNA and their offspring's for generations. Is it an acceptable risk to expose our tiny babies to these chemicals, which might affect their health and future children? There might be a similar argument that things like fabric softener and detergent used on diapers contains their own group of chemicals such as petroleum distillates, bleach, and aerosols which, like the disposables, probably have not been studied as far as their skin-absorbing behavior. What's a mother to do?!

Patricia Martinek
Colorado Department of Transportation
[email protected]

Hi all

Given that the vast majority of people are still in the process of getting to grips with relatively simple home sustainability initiatives, they are unlikely to be accepting of composting toilets in the forseeable future, however there may be a happy medium between individual on-site management of black water, and centralised systems of management, such as the Living Machines and Solar Aquatics technologies (there are already a myriad in successful operation):

www.worrellwater.com/products_lm.html
http://ecological-engineering.com/

Cheers,
Sharon

Hi there.

When thinking about behavior, we have to think about what factors influence people's decisions. I'm a cloth diapering full-time working mom and I've done a great deal of personal advocacy on the cloth diaper issue. (I've also used this as an example in behavior change trainings) I would suggest organizing any communications efforts on what parents actually need to know. Ideally this would involve some audience research, but anecdotally I would say this could probably be summed up as: Knowledge (mostly about Options and Barriers) - new moms are confused by all the varieties of diapering systems out there - how do you choose? Clearly organized neutral information explaining different types and their pluses/minuses would help enormously. Plus where do you go to buy cloth diapers affordably? What about diaper services that bring them to you clean each week (this uses more water and resources but is better than plastic) Skills - Step by step guidelines on how you go about washing diapers at home Attitudes - people think of pins and leaky wet cloth. It seems old-fashioned and a lot of trouble. This is not the case with modern cloth diaper systems so targeting this attitude shift is critical. Plus, many people say, "cloth isn't really better because of the water use" - numbers would help to convince people it really is the right choice. Barriers - many perceived barriers exist. There are informal lending/exchange networks that let parents try cloth without a huge investment. If this could be formalized, it would help a lot with the attitude issue about barriers - since they aren't as insurmountable as they seem before you try it.

Thanks for the interesting discussion!
Shannon

Shannon W. Earle
Manager Education and Social Marketing
Strategic Marketing + Global Communications Division
Conservation International
2011 Crystal Drive, Suite 500
Arlington, VA 22202
www.conservation.org
[email protected]
Tel: 703 341 2705
Fax 703 892 0238

Hi Adam

There is a movement to limiting the human population. Check out: http://www.vhemt.org/ the Voluntary Human Extinction Movement.

Nardene