The True Price of Throw away vs Cloth Diapers
Thursday, October 28th, 2010So what is the true cost associated with disposable vs fabric diapers? This article looks at the different factors associated with making the decision between disposable or re-usable diapers. These consist of; cost to the planet, cost to well being and cost to your pocket. Definitely plenty to think about!
On the environment
They call them disposable nappies…never was a product so wrongly called! You cannot flush or compost them, they clog our landfills – where they remain for as much as 500 years. It’s a terrifying fact that every “disposable” nappy that has ever been produced is still sitting, intact, in a landfill somewhere. Is this the heritage that we want to pass on to our children?
Britain tosses away 8 million nappies A DAY! That is 3 billion a yr! They constitute 4% of all the UK’s household trash – and 50% of all the rubbish in a one-baby family. Not only that, 5 million trees are felled each and every year just to maintain UK babies in disposable diapers.
In your baby’s health
A study conducted at Kiel University in Germany in 2000 showed that the temperature inside disposable nappies was up to 5 degrees centigrade higher than in fabric diapers. It was suggested that for boys clothing particularly, this could endanger future fertility as the semen-producing function is developed within the initial 2 years of life, and is dependent on the testicular region becoming kept reasonably cool.
The chemical which makes throw away diapers so efficient is known as sodium polyacrylate. This is really a super-absorbent powder which, when it becomes wet, swells into a gel. You are able to occasionally see clear crystals of sodium polyacrylate in your baby’s bottom when you change a nappy. There are several doubts over the safety of sodium polyacrylate: not least amongst which is its creation of an illusion of dryness which could encourage the diaper (and its contents) to be left in place for longer than advisable, in conditions which are bacterially ideal for the growth of infection.
Other well being concerns around disposable nappies consist of the fact that the wood pulp used in them is bleached using dioxins that are highly toxic chemicals known to trigger liver damage, immune system suppression and genetic harm in animal studies.
In your pocket
For every £1 spent on disposables, it costs the taxpayer 10p to dispose of them! The total national cost of this is £40 million a yr.
Disposables come with a birth to potty price tag of as much as £1200, that is based on average diaper use being 2.5 years. Even when laundry expenses are factored in, a fabric diaper system will cost you approximately £400 from birth to potty. That’s a saving of as much as £800!!! These savings are also increased when you use the exact same nappies on a second or even third child.
You will find so many reasons that fabric nappies are a better option for your baby, not least that most washable nappy parents discover that they actually PERFORM better than disposables too!
Find more information about nappies and a wide range of boys clothing online at http://www.welovefrugi.com/boys-clothes/index.htm