Why Disposable Diapers are Dirty and Dangerous

in GREEN PARENTING, VOLUNTARY SIMPLICITY

Babies do a lot of pooping. In fact, the average baby goes through 6-8 diapers a day. Unless you practice elimination communication, your baby will use at least 6,500 diapers before potty training around 30 months old. If you use disposables, this costs about $75–$100 a month retail, or $3,000 per child!

According to a 2010 study, one-third of U.S. mothers are cutting back on basic necessities (such as food, utilities, and childcare) to buy diapers for their children. But as much as disposable diapers cost individual families, they cost us even more as a nation and as a planet.

For International Real Diaper Week, consider these alarming facts you may not know about disposable diapers:

Disposable Nation

Approximately 90% of Americans use 18 billion single-use, plastic diapers a year. This generates 7.6 billion pounds of garbage each year—enough waste to fill Yankee Stadium 15 times over, or stretch to the moon and back 9 times. Every year.

Disposable diapers are the 3rd largest consumer item in landfills, and represent 30%of non-biodegradable waste. The only other items that outnumber the amount of disposables in landfills are newspapers and beverage and food containers.

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