This week is Real Diaper Week, intended to increase awareness about reusable cloth diapers. Today we’re focusing on the waste reduction benefit to cloth diapers.
- Americans are throwing away 60,000 diapers per minute.
- Households with babies in single-use diapers literally double their waste.
- These diapers then sit in landfills for 250-500 years before decomposing.
- In addition to the contribution to landfill, consider all the natural resources (trees, petroleum) used in the manufacture of billions of throwaway diapers.
Celebrating Earth Day means renewed commitments for many people to the tenets of Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle. Reusable cloth diapers consume fewer raw materials (including petro-chemicals) and produce less waste. Just as people are rejecting single-use plastic water bottles and grocery bags in favor of reusable versions, increasing numbers of parents are choosing reusable diapers. And, as it turns out, using cloth diapers isn’t the enormous hassle that “Big Disposables” make it out to be.
Locally, here’s how we celebrated Waste Reduction Day of Real Diaper Week in San Diego:
- Sent this message to local environmental organizations and asked them to spread the word to their constituents.
- Followed up on the diaper reduction sections of the zero waste plan in Oceanside (a community within our county).
- Planned upcoming classes for our Circle members to learn more about elimination communication (because diaper free is as environmentally-sound as it gets).
- Continued to plan for the Great Cloth Diaper Change on Saturday, April 21st! Be there!
Heather McNamara
Executive Director, Real Diaper Association
