Time to bring back cloth diapers?
Summer is nearing its end and is giving me time to ponder on a few things.
As other grandparents we enjoyed having our youngest grandson and the many pets to stay with us during the summer.
One of the pets is a cute little dog that’s not quite housebroken. So there were “pit-stops” at strategic places of the house. They are actually very handy to have, as they are made of absorbent material on a liquid proof sheet. No messy clean-ups! But then I faced the dilemma of how to dispose of this doggie pit-stop! Is it garbage, or does it go in recycle bin? Or is it bio-hazardous waste?
Checking the recycling brochure didn’t give me an answer and then it struck me, what about all these disposable diapers and like products? As far as I can remember my grandson’s diapers were emptied in the garbage bins. Granted, they were individual wrapped in a plastic shield for disposal, but I wouldn’t suggest to come too close to a bin with a week’s worth of disposables! Yet they get dumped at the landfill and I can’t help but wonder whether the methane gas a landfill produces is caused by all these diapers? We have been blaming our cattle for producing noxious gasses, but what about these?
And then I remember the time when my 50-plus year old child was a baby and how we used cloth diapers, and how each wet diaper also involved changing the crib’s linen! Every day there were diapers and linen hanging on the clothes lines. Could it be that going back to cloth diapers could be an answer to decrease our ecological footprint? These diapers make nice soft bandages for that same child or a sling, or can be used to clean up the mess the older child makes.
I still don’t know if it’s OK to throw my doggie pit-stop mat in the garbage, but I took a chance and have not been cited.
Judy van der Boom
Mill Bay
