Cloth Diapers vs Disposable Diapers

To my knowledge, the most recent definitive paper on this is a British one:

http://randd.defra.gov.uk/Document.aspx?Document=WR0705_7589_FRP.pdf

NOTE - It is very important that you read the detail of this and not just the conclusion as the assumptions made are important. This study assumes that the reusable nappies are normal cotton, whereas there are of course nappies made from organically produced cotton, bamboo and hemp nappies, all of which have a smaller footprint.

For those who don't want to read the whole paper, the answer to which you should use is: it depends. It depends on which environmental issues are deemed to be more important. It depends on which products you buy. If you use reusable nappies, it depends how many children you use them for and how you wash and dry them.

...But to my mind it's pretty clear that reusable nappies are the winners. After all, does anyone buy new cotton reusable nappies, dry them in a tumble drier all the time and then throw them out after one child has used them?

Katherine Lustig
Parramatta City Council
Australia

Hi, I'm not sure if this is the same study mentioned by Katherine but the Women and Environment Network (WEN) in the UK commissioned a critique of two life cycle reports commissioned by Proctor and Gamble into the environmental impacts of cloth vs disposable nappies/diapers. The P&G studies had found there was little difference between cloth and disposable nappies. The critique commissioned by WEN interpreted the findings somewhat differently in cloth nappies favour. I can't find the original study online but this paper mentions it and has other info on nappies and waste...
www.wen.org.uk/nappies/reports/Disposable_nappies_casestudy.pdf

Sarah Pritchett
contractor
NewZealand

Just to add something from left field into this debate, you may like to do some research on "nappiless (or diaperless) babies". This is the ancient practise of tuning into babies to the extent that you can toilet them without nappies/diapers. It is now being used by some (dedicated) mothers in western cultures. It is called "eminiation communication", here is a link to the wikipedia entry on it. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elimination_communication

Cheers,

Andrea Koch
Sustainability Consultant
Australia