Babies Diapers – Technology Silences the Furies in the Great Debate
The Great Diaper Debate has a brief but colorful history. When consciousness of earth’s peril first leaked-out of science labs and think tanks, seeping into the conventional wisdom and trickling into everyday conversation, concern about greenhouse gases, global warming, and climate change dominated the discussions. Then, as Mr. and Mrs. America became more sophisticated about environmental issues, toxic wastes, groundwater contamination, and concern about rapidly diminishing space in landfills rose to prominence. In the beginning, very few “greenies” expressed concern about hazards hidden in everyday consumer products. In the last few years, however, as researchers detailed the dangers of BHT and analysts feverishly examined contents of Asian toys and candies, household staples have come under rigorous review. Once cleverly hidden in an obvious place, old-fashioned cotton and disposable babies diapers suddenly came out of obscurity to lead the list of flagrant environmental offenders.
In 2009, however, diaper developers scored major technological and manufacturing breakthroughs, bringing Earth-friendly new products to market, rendering cotton and disposable diapers obsolete, averting environmental disaster, and silencing The Three Furies’ shrill voices in The Great Diaper Debate.
Serious Environmental Risks in Old-Fashioned Cloth and Disposable Babies Diapers
Cotton ravaged the land and displaced thousands of family farmers. For a while, though, demand for cotton rose to record levels as environmentalists saw far greater hazard in artificial fibers than they recognized in “the fabric of our lives.” Three cataclysmic environmental disasters in Eastern Europe and Asia prompted environmentalists to reconsider cotton’s impact on the environment. They found cotton farmers pumped more toxins into the earth than acrylic manufacturers could imagine, and cotton so thoroughly depleted once-fertile soil that aggressive soil amendment had little effect. Because consumers always and everywhere had considered them harmless, diapers numbered among the world’s leading cotton products. Mr. and Mrs. America suddenly realized they had plundered the earth to swaddle baby’s tender bottom.
Plastic-and-paper disposable diapers gained favor among consumers. Convenience ranked first among the reasons for their preference, and environmental impact did not figure prominently in their buying decisions. When a few fun facts about disposable diapers went out over the airwaves, though, Mr. and Mrs. America sat-up and took notice. A baby uses between 4000 and 6000 diapers before she gains control of her bladder and bowels and learns to use the toilet. If she wears old-fashioned disposable diapers, she generates approximately two tons of hazardous waste. Products of the baby’s digestion, of course, pose no threat, but chlorine and volatile organic compounds seep out of disposable diapers and into groundwater. The plastic in disposable diapers takes between 500 and 1000 years to breakdown in a landfill.
The Great Diaper Debate raged, but it always ended in stalemate. Buying diapers, conscientious parents were damned if they did and damned if they didn’t. The Furies howled and haunted conscience-stricken moms and dads.
Breaking the Stalemate in the Great Debate over Babies Diapers
Between 2005 and 2009, three revolutionary baby products won patents and came to market. They did not so much break the impasse in The Great Debate over babies diapers as they rose above it; they made the debate irrelevant. First, “All-in-One” or “Pocket” diaper systems combined reusable cellulose outer wrappers with disposable organic liners, delivering disposables’ convenience without the toxins and tons of waste. Pocket diapers also brought high fashion into the diaper world: the pockets come in fashion forward colors and designs. Second, textile makers perfected 60/40 and 75/25 blends of hemp and organically grown cotton, putting them to good use in babies diapers. Hemp requires neither fertilizer nor pesticide, and it grows abundantly with little water or care. Organically grown cotton comes from family farms in emerging nations, boosting their exports and raising their GDP’s. The “hybrid” washes easily with gentle detergent in cold water, and it dries quickly in the sun. Growing softer with repeated washing, the hemp/cotton blend protects babies against skin irritations and rashes, and with proper care, cotton/hemp diapers easily will last at least seven generations. Third, sophisticated paper-makers developed the organic equivalent of plastic, and they refined their fine-paper processes, combining all their advances in production of flushable and compostable diapers. Diapers do flush away or break-down with yard waste.
Although conscientious parents still face a nearly impossible choice among three equal products, now they choose among equally good earth-friendly alternatives. They no longer struggle to determine which among babies diapers seems least of all evils.
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