Change your diapers
According to this Swedish article, Swedish families consume and throw away a total of 414 million diapers per year, which is approximately 2% of the country’s total waste quantity. Each individual baby uses a total of 4000-6500 diapers.
Modern plastic diapers are problematic from a environmental point of view since:
- The production consumes a lot of energy: the energy used for producing one baby’s diapers, i.e. 4000-6500 diapers, is enough to heat a house for 2-4 months.
- The production involves natural gas, oil, and cellulose, as well as chemicals such as bleach.
- Trucks are used for transportation.
- Although cellulose and soft plastics can be recycled, the huge amount of liquid that diapers usually contain decreases the amount of energy that can be regained.
One possible solution to the disposable plastic diaper issue is to replace them with re-usable cloth diapers. However, according to Swedish authorities cloth diapers are not a better option per se. Here are some recommendations for how to make them a better option:
- Use organic cloth diapers.
- Use the full capacity of the washing machine when you wash the diapers.
- Use non-toxic and organic laundry detergent.
- Use “green” power to run the washing machine.
- Let the diapers air-dry after being washed.
In addition to being environmentally friendly, using cloth diapers can make you save up to $3000 per child.
You can sew your own cloth diapers or buy them. Very Baby makes custom-made cloth diapers.
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