Disposable diapers are incredibly harmful to the environment. It takes approximately 500 years just for one diaper to decompose, and that’s only if it’s exposed to enough sunlight and oxygen!
Switching to cloth diapers can help alleviate this impact on the environment.
Most babies use upwards of 3,000 diapers before being trained to use a toilet. That means it’ll take 1.5 million years for the diapers from just one baby to decompose.
In America alone, 9 out of 10 babies use disposable diapers. This contributes to 27.4 billion diapers ending up in landfills every year. The good news is that 30 cloth diapers equal about 4,000 disposable diapers!
If you’re a family who plans on having more than one baby, you can be even greener by passing on those cloth diapers to new babies.
It’s important to take into consideration the number of trees needed just to make disposable diapers, too.
Over 200,000 trees are cut down every year to produce them, and they play a crucial part in our environment. Not to mention all of the side effects that lumbering has on our ecosystem.
If you’re still not into the idea of using cloth diapers, or if you’re concerned about water usage, then at least consider switching to biodegradable ones.
These still contribute to landfills, but they don’t take nearly as long to decompose. Choose organic diapers to avoid any harmful chemicals.