From: allen@tessi.com (Allen Warren)
Subject: Re: Diapers and the Environment (Was Re: Diaper Services)
Organization: Test Systems Strategies, Inc., Beaverton, Oregon
Date: Mon, 9 Nov 1992 22:21:30 GMT

bwolfe@trentu.ca (BEN WOLFE) writes:

>A couple of recent posts have quoted an article in "Garbage" magazine
>and one from the New York Times which purport to back up the disposable
>diaper industry's claim that disposables and cloth diapers have about
>the same impact on the environment.

>I work for a community environmental project in Ontario (the Peterborough
>Green-Up) and have spent some time looking at the studies involved, and
>I can tell you that much as users of disposables might want to ease their
>consciences, it just isn't so.

>The debate now centres on a type of environmental study called life cycle
>analysis, in which all impacts of a product from extraction through use
>and disposal are quantified. In general it's a useful approach, but since
>the data about many detailed aspects of resource use and disposal do not
>exist or are disputed, the reality is that these studies are based on a
>huge number of often questionable assumptions.

.
.
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>I think there are a lot of good reasons that diapers have become a
>symbolic environmental issue. As parents of young children (and yes, I
>have one in diapers and one recently out of them) we have the responsi-
>bility for preparing the future they will live in. Does it really make
>any sense to you to take a space-age product that will last for five
>centuries and wrap it around your child's waist for a few hours, and then
>toss it away, soiled, for someone in some other place or time to deal with?

>I live in a town of 65,000 which currently supports two diaper services.
>They cost less than disposables, and are almost as convenient. Yes,
>convenience is nice, but there are other values that are more enduring and
>important.

Ben, I hope I didn't err in leaving out much of your post, but I didn't
want to waste too much space and therefore left out the posting of the
findings from the two research groups.

My wife and I use both cloth and disposable.  Cloth is used during waking
hours and disposable only during the nighttime (no, we don't use disposable
during naptimes).  Additionally, we sometimes use a disposable on a long
outing/car ride, which with 2 kids under the age of 3.5 years is quite rare.

Anyway,  I realize that many, many parents do indeed throw soiled diapers
, at least the disposable variety, right into the trash can before removing
fecal waste, not to mention all the urine which of course is trapped in the
lining material.  I can see where this could potentially lead to an enormous
amount of waste.

I guess the questions I have to ask are:  What is the cost in environmental
damage in manufacturing cloth vs. disposable diapers?  What is the cost in
environmental damage in laundery soap phosphates being dumped into the waste
system?  I realize that disposables may appear as outright winnners in terms
of convenience AND environmental damage, but the key word here is MAY, since
not all data is in on comparisons.  I guess I really started to ask the
question of which is worse when I found out that our local sewer system will
quite frequently run off into a local river (the Williamette here in Portland,
OR).

There's so many variables in this debate.  On the outside it might appear that
disposables are definitely bad, but I find it hard to condemn them on such
slim facts.  I wish we, the consumers and general public, need to be better
informed on all the facts.

allen