I’ve never really been the person that buys into all the “we’re destroying the earth!” hype. You know, like global warming. Things like that. I do however know that we could do some things a lot better when it comes to using resources and treating the earth in the best way possible. I like to be “green” to a degree, but I’m not a fanatic about it, know what I mean?

One of the most horrific moments of my life was the time Preston took me to a landfill. We were moving and had too much moving type trash/junk to leave for our local pickup, so we took it to the landfill. Until that day, I’ll admit I was naive and thought that you threw away trash and then that’s it. It’s gone. I mean, I knew it went somewhere, such as a landfill, but I didn’t really put much thought into it. Who really sits around thinking about where all the trash goes once the trash truck picks it up? You know it goes somewhere, but you never actually see it again. And if you do happen to see the “public friendly” side of a landfill, it most likely resembles happy rolling hills of beautiful green grass. At least, that’s what the landfill I grew up near looked like.

So we went to the landfill to drop of this stuff. We passed by happy rolling green hills and I figured this wasn’t going to be so bad. Oh no, it was bad. It wasn’t like you just stop by and hand junk off to some workers and be on your way. No, we actually had to back our truck up to this HUMONGOUS mountain of trash that was being moved and smashed all around by several of these bulldozer type things. Do you know how big a bulldozer is? Okay well they looked like tiny match box trucks on top of a huge mountain. And the trucks were covered in trash. I don’t even really know how the guys got in and out of them with all the trash packed into the sides. And who would even voluntarily take a job like that anyway? EW. To make the scene even more wonderful, this huge mountain of trash was covered by thousands of seagulls. I sat in the truck staring at mountains of trash as far as I could see while Preston and couple of guys added our junk to the pile. I was in complete shock.

I was in complete shock because it was a huge wake up call for me. I don’t think I can even accurately describe how awful this was, but all I could think about was that this was one landfill, in one town and it had that much trash. Think about how many people there are, how many towns and cities there are, how many landfills there are.

This really does have something to do with cloth diapers.

Think about how many diapers the average baby goes through before they are potty trained. I really had no clue how many diapers that was until I had TWO babies. I think one would have gotten the picture across to me but two definitely drilled it into my head that babies require a lot of diapers. Despite my landfill horror, I used disposable diapers with my twins anyway because really I didn’t know any better at the time, I was a new mom and you use disposable diapers, that’s just what you do, right? Cloth diapers were some foreign old school thing that was disgusting and probably didn’t have any better of an impact on the environment than disposables, considering how much water and such it would take to clean the cloth diapers, etc. Well, I was wrong. Very, very, very, wrong!

Not only will you save a significant amount of money using cloth diapers (the proof is in the math), it’s far, far better for the environment. Did you know, the average baby is in disposable diapers for two to three years and uses between 8,000 to 10,000 diapers before they are potty trained? Now think about this, taken from diapernet.org:

An estimated 18 billion single-use diapers are thrown in landfills each year, taking as many as 500 years to decompose, and commonly contain raw, untreated sewage. Disposable diapers make up the third largest source of solid waste in landfills, after newspapers and food and beverage containers. It takes upwards of 82,000 tons of plastic and 1.3 million tons of wood pulp, or a quarter-million trees, to manufacture the disposable diapers that cover the bottoms of 90 percent of the babies born in the US.

The negative impact of single-use diapers on the environment goes far beyond the disposal problem. A study prepared by The Landbank Consultancy for The Women’s Environmental Network shows that single-use diapers use 3.5 times as much energy, 8 times as much non-regenerable raw materials, and 90 times as much renewable material as cloth diapers.

If disposable diapers make up the third largest source of solid waste in landfills, imagine how much of an impact could be made if everyone used cloth diapers. Not to mention the first two largest sources of solid waste are newspapers and beverage containers – both of which are recyclable!!! It really is just disgusting and mind blowing, and completely depressing.

So, we’re using cloth diapers this time around. And I would encourage any expecting parents or even parents of children still in diapers, to consider making the switch to cloth diapers. Even with the increase in laundry, which equals a very small increase in water usage/cost, it can save you thousands of dollars. You have to foot the bill up front for cloth diapers, but then you never have to worry about buying diapers again and you can rest easy know that you’re making a big impact on the environment, not to mention you’ll never have to make a late night diaper run again, or budget the cost of diapers into your monthly expenses!

Cloth diapers have come a long way since the cloth diapering days your grandma remembers. There are so many great options out there that range from extremely inexpensive to expensive. If cost isn’t an issue for you, there are some awesome diapers out there now that go on just the same as a disposable, but don’t end up in the landfill for the next 500 years or so. And if cost is a concern for you, as it is for me – I love to save money – there are some very inexpensive options that work just as well and are actually super easy to use!

And guess what? I’m going to tell you all about the different types of cloth diapers in my next blog post. It’s become somewhat of an obsession of mine. Just ask my husband. Speaking of husband, I have a movie date with him soooo… stay tuned for more useful information on cloth diapers next time!

Posted at 10:40 pm | Filed Under Baby #3, General, Parenting Twins | 4 Comments