WATERLOO
CENTRE FOR GROUNDWATER RESEARCH
THE DIAPER DILEMMA
home:articles:diaper dilema
Sherry
Schiff
As
every proud new mom or dad (or older brother or sister) knows,
a new baby means lots of diapers – 15 to 18 every day!
The television is full of ads promising longer protection
for grandma’s antique sofa, a new form fit without "the
bunchies", and even colour coded diaper: pink for girls
and blue for boys. Recently, concern has been expressed over
the diaper issue and as with any issue close to the heart,
especially one involving children, the arguments have become
fairly heated. Why all the concern about diapers?
Think about what happens to those pretty designer diapers
once they leave the curbsides of suburbia. The average baby
uses ten disposable diapers a day for two years. This amounts
to a small hill of diapers and a lot of garbage – one
metric ton per child. Disposable fees at municipal landfills
are currently about $85 a ton – sounds cheap compared
to the initial cost of the diapers. Think though about how
much room one metric ton of used diapers will occupy. Diapers
by volume constitute 2% of all garbage from residential areas.
With the populated areas of southern Ontario rapidly running
out of room in licensed landfill sites and the growing opposition
to siting new landfills due to environmental, aesthetic and
NIMBY (not in my backyard) concerns, the problems of disposing
of over 100 million diapers per year are obvious. Thus, the
call for the return to the traditional cloth diaper or biodegradable
diapers.
What about biodegradable diapers? Environmentalists warn that
adding the label "biodegradable" merely reinforces
the wrong message: "To throw away is ok." Biodegradable
plastics cannot be recycled. If degradable plastics are mixed
with normal plastics in the recycling process, the resulting
product will be jeopardized. However, it is not likely that
diapers are destined for the recycling plant. The lifetime
of the biodegradable diaper compared to a regular disposal
diaper in a landfill is also an unknown, and most certainly
depends on a host of environmental factors such as the landfill
leachate quality, the amount of water, soil conditions, presence
of other chemicals, etc. The decreased lifetime of the plastic
may, however, be a moot point. Not much of the disposable
diaper, biodegradable or regular, is plastic; only the surface
sheets, waistbands and fastening tabs. The rest of the diaper
is wood pulp fibres and, in some cases, polymers specifically
designed to absorb moisture and keep baby dry.
There are other concerns about disposable diapers; landfills
are now receiving material that we have traditionally treated
via sewage treatment plants where effluents are monitored.
Furthermore, many of our vaccines that are given to babies
starting at 2 months are live. Disposable diaper packages
contain a request printed on the outside of the package that
the inner diapers be rinsed and the fecal material flushed
down the toilet before the diapers are put out for garbage
collection. How many busy caregivers faithfully flush out
each diaper before disposal?
Landfills in the past have been sited with little respect
for the geology or groundwater flow in the area. Many older
landfills are either situated on some of the best types of
geologic areas which are more permeable to water than anticipated.
Regulations concerning the siting of new landfills have recently
become much more rigorous. Research on landfill leachate quality
and movement, and the protection of our vital groundwater
resources is currently underway in the Department of Earth
Sciences at Waterloo.
With all of these environmental problems associated with disposable
diapers, why not return to cloth? – it’s more
economical, savings of $2,000 per child over disposable diapers.
But doesn’t washing diapers also add to environmental
pollution? Think of all the extra soap, bleach and extra electricity
needed to wash and diapers. Yes, washing will contribute to
pollution, and low phosphorus or "biodegradable"
detergents can be used to avoid eutrophication (increasing
the plant or algae growth in natural waterways). Don’t
forget that manufacturing the disposable diapers also consumes
energy and petroleum products.
However, the main issue close to the heart is time. One thing
a new parent is always short of is time (synonymous with sleep).
How much easier just to flip that used smelly diaper into
a green garbage bag and pull another from the package, especially
in the middle of the night? Who wants to wake up to a forest
of dirty diapers in the morning? And as for travelling, who
wants to arrive with an armload of dirty diapers and head
straight out to the laundromat instead of the beach or ski
slopes? As one mother of quadruplets in Peterborough, Ontario
said to a vocal proponent of cloth diapers: "I challenge
him to wash the diapers in my household for one day …"
However, as we run out of places to put our garbage, as landfill
disposal fees skyrocket and as recycling programs become more
and more extensive, the diaper dilemma will face increased
scrutiny in the near future.
This
article is from "Mothering Magazine" January &
February 2000
