Dirty diapers and the environment

After a few months hiatus I'm back. In November we welcomed the arrival of our second child and until now I've spent much of the time adjusting to the lack of sleep and constant crying. The rest of the time is spent changing diapers.

While waiting my turn at the local Supercuts I came across this Time magazine article about diapers going green. The article says there are a staggering 27.4 billion disposable diapers used each year!! That's just astounding. From personal experience we go through 10-12 diapers a day between the two kids. That's well over 3,500 diapers a year for my small family so it's easy to see how the number balloons.

Always looking for ways to minimize my footprint I gave it some serious consideration and came to the conclusion that there is no way I can do it and here's why:

Poop. Plain and simple. I want no part of it and will do everything in my power to avoid it. I will use excessive amounts of wipes to avoid coming in contact with it. These "green" diapers look like there would be more opportunity for residual contact, maybe it's me.

GDiapers looks promising but a bit on the pricey side. Here's a little fun math. Diapers we buy at Costco cost about 15 cents each. Let's make this simple and say we go through 10 diapers a day, 70 a week for a total cost of $10.50.

Take out the start-up costs for the GDiapers system, you are looking at 33 cents each refill if you buy the case. The same scenario costs $23.10. More than double!

Although a great idea in theory I don't think green diapers will ever catch on. To make a large enough impact it needs to be affordable and available to the masses. Green diapers at this point are only for those willing to shell out more money for less convenience.

I feel a little guilty not doing my part but we all have boundaries. I'll be looking for other ways to save mother earth.