Originally Posted by
Stitchnripper
I listened to a podcast once where the fellow was talking about the advantage/disadvantage of using disposables vs. washables. He didn't talk about diapers exactly, and I know they fill up the landfills and will never decompose, but he said first that he wasn't taking a position, that everyone would do what they wanted and he wasn't an advocate in either direction, but after much study it turned out, at least from his research, that it was a wash whether one uses disposables or non and washes them using water, energy, etc. Just something to consider. I'm not taking a position either one way or the other. Just offering that up for thought.
I watched a segment on television one day where the host and panel of guests were discussing cloth vs disposables, and though I'm staying neutral in my argument, too, one of the guests brought up the fact as to how much water is used in the manufacturing process of disposable diapers, the chemicals used, the energy expelled in the manufacturing process, the pollution involved, the plastic used for waterproofing the diapers, the paper and gel inside the diapers to make them absorbent, and the consumer packaging, and while cotton requires a considerable amount of water (including bleaching) when transformed into clothing and garments, cloth, as far as all information put forth that day on the program, beat-out disposables considerably, particularly the plain, simple, old-fashioned square and rectangle diapers of the past.
It's so hard believing much of what we read about, hear about, and watch today, because everything in the way of information is so convoluted.