The Terrifying Truth Behind Disposable Diapers

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What is global warming and why should you care about it? Global warming refers to our planet’s temperature.

Over the past 50 years, the average global temperature has increased at the fastest rate in recorded history.

Global warming occurs when air pollutants and greenhouse gases collect in the atmosphere and absorb sunlight and solar radiation that have bounced off the earth’s surface.

Scientists say that the earth’s rising temperatures are fueling longer and hotter heat waves, more frequent droughts, heavier rainfall, and more powerful hurricanes.

Why should you care about global warming? Well, global warming isn’t a myth.

We can see the effects of it starting from these days. If we won’t take action, and save our planet this is what will happen in 20 years:

1. The glaciers will melt, which will raise the water level on Earth and islands like Venice, New York City and more, will be erased.

2. Because of the melting glaciers, the bacteria of old diseases will come out and we’ll have to fight old and serious diseases that came back to our planet.

3. Because of the climate changes, there will be massive heat waves that would start big fires and will harm agriculture.

4. Impact on the water quality that will lead to a global water shortage. Rising the sea level can also cause the depletion of freshwater as a result of saltwater aquifers.

Don’t you want to live a good life in a good future? Don’t you want your kids to even have a future?

Here are a few little things that if we all do in our homes, we can make a huge impact and stop global warming:

* Reduce water waste

* Eat the food you buy, and eat less meat.

* Buy better bulbs – LED lightbulbs use up to 80 percent less energy than conventional incandescents (they are also cheaper).

* Electricity in your home – this is one of the most harmful things we do to the environment.

* Don’t leave fully charged devices plugged into your home’s outlets, unplug rarely used devices or plug them into power strips and timers, and adjust your computers and monitors to automatically power down to the lowest power mode when not in use.

* When buying a new car, buy an electric car.

* RECYCLE – The average person makes 2.5 Kg of garbage a day! this means that in one year, you make 912.5 Kg of trash that gets thrown outside in our nature and harms our planet the most.

LET’S SAVE OUR PLANET!

Are you a parent with a new baby or a soon to be baby? Have you thought about diapering and how you want to do it? You can go 1 of 3 ways. Naked (yes this is a thing), disposables or cloth diapers.

These are some of my favorite books on global warming, saving the planet and our future. Just click on each photo to get your copy.

Are you afraid of cloth diapers? Intimidated by them? Make you say EW GROSS?? Then you need to read this post right now about the terrifying truth behind disposable diapers.

When you get finished reading this post, you will be saying those words above (scared, intimidated and EW GROSS) to DISPOSABLES instead. 

Because today, I am going to scare the shi** out of you straight into cloth diapers (no pun intended – hehe)

Oh, also, by the time you get through reading this post, over 400,000 disposables will have filled the landfills. There goes a 1,000 of them right now.

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Disclaimer: This post may contain affiliate links. This just means that if you purchase one of the items in the post from my link, I will get a small commission at no extra cost for you. Thank you for your support!

Below is a list of true researched facts from the Environmental Protection Agency.

P.S. This post is a scary post and I am warning you now that it may be unsettling to some readers. I  myself lost some sleep over knowing this information. If you have a sensitive stomach or thoughts please beware.

Disposable diapers go through 3 different stages. And each stage comes with a plethora of dangerous and terrifying facts. 

Stages

1. Manufactured
2. Used/Worn
3. Thrown Away

Stage 1: Manufactured

• 200,000 Trees are cut down for disposable diapers every year for the United States only.
  
• 3.4 billion gallons of fuel oil will be used for disposable diapers every year for the United States only.
  
• During the course of ONE baby’s diapering years, 300lbs of wood will be burned, 20lbs of chlorine, and 50lbs of petroleum will be burned (which drives up gas prices as well as using gas to transport diapers to retailers and to landfills once they are used).
  
• The gel-like crystals (that are inside the disposables to absorb wetness) aka AGM (absorbent gelling material) are made from Sodium Polyacrylate which is a petroleum product. AGM is what causes the rashes and if accidentally ingested (baby rips off diaper and shreds wet diaper, gel crystals get on baby hands and into mouth) is like eating gas.
  
• Phthalates, the harmful chemical found in plastics like BPA, is also used to manufacture disposables. This chemical is known for causing endocrine eruptions, negative side effects to the male reproductive system (your baby boy), allergic reactions, toxic shock, asthma and is highly lethal to pets.
  
• Tributyl – another harmful substance used in the making of disposables, DOES NOT EVER DEGRADE. 
  
• DIOXIN – you ever wonder why disposables are white? They are bleached with Dioxin. Dioxin is a harmful cancer-causing substance that leaks into the environment during manufacturing. (Source: Environmental Protection Agency – EPA). Dioxin (bleaching agent) is the most potent carcinogen cancer-causing chemical linked to birth defects, infertility, neurotoxicity, and diabetes. 

So 20x the amount of raw materials such as crude oil are being used in disposables versus reusable cloth diapers.

Okay so that is just a small tidbit, but here is the kicker…

Disposable diaper companies do NOT list these contents on the packaging. Of course not…

Have you started to get nauseous yet? Because I am JUST getting started….

Stage 2: Use of Disposables (this is when you might go rip the diaper off of your baby part…)

• So now you might be wondering that maybe you are tossing money at a lethal convenience
  
• Disposables acquire 60x the amount of solid waste than reusable diapers because the human waste does not get flushed (by most consumers)
  
• Parents tend to leave disposable diapers on baby much longer than they would a natural and breathable cloth diaper. 
  
• The temperature inside a disposable diaper is 3-4 degrees hotter than a reusable which will cause bacteria (wondering why baby has a yeast infection or diaper rash?)
  
• Parents are THROWING AWAY poop, preserving human waste FOREVER inside plastic diapers in the landfills…. so now we go into the 3rd stage of what happens every time you throw away a poopy diaper

Stage 3 – Throwing the diapers away

27.4 Billion diapers fill the landfills every year… enough to fill the New York Yankees Stadium 15x… let’s talk about what happens to them…

• The Environmental Protection Agency says that the average baby will go through an average of 8 thousand diapers during the diapering years
  
• One diaper can take centuries (over 500 years) to biodegrade IFFFFFFF they are exposed to sunlight and air (so longer if they are buried underground)
  
• Landfills create open groundwater contamination from human waste
  
• Toxins and contaminants leak into water sources, making it unfit for human consumption… depleting our drinking water at a faster rate… we need water to survive.
  
• Landfills are full of untreated human waste (alongside the cancer-causing diapers) making them a breeding ground for disease… when human waste IS biodegradable, it’s preserved forever wrapped inside of a disposable.
  
• According to the EPA, disposable diapers are the 3rd largest consumer items in the landfills (the first 2 being food products and paper).
  
• 30% of the diaper is NONbiodegradable waste
  
• If Christopher Columbus wore disposables (thank goodness they didn’t start making them then) his dirty diapers would STILL be in the landfills. 
  

CLICK HERE TO GET YOUR FREE “SAVE THE ENVIRONMENT” PLANNER

I’ve given you just the tip of the iceberg, where not much more can be shared before it is deemed too disgusting.

Another 100,000 disposable diapers just hit the landfills as you finish reading this blog post…

So even if you are still afraid of cloth diapers, I hope you would at least consider a biodegradable disposable such as:

My personal FAVORITE! Earth and Eden These are Cruelty-free – not tested on animals; Made with SFI Certified sustainably sourced fluff; Printed with non-toxic water-based inks; Produced in a Zero Waste to Landfill Facility

The Honest Company

Andy Pandy

Eco Boom

Here are some of my favorite, affordable cloth diapers that are for beginners that you can start using right away:

Baby Goal – a 6 pack for $36! That is a STEAL!

Wegreeco – Another 6 pack that comes with a wetbag or a muslin blanket! $30

Another inexpensive way to go is to buy a package of prefolds and 3-5 covers. You can reuse the covers over and over without washing, only needing to wash prefolds. This is one of my favorite methods. I like Rumparooz covers and THESE prefeolds. This is most economic, affordable way to cloth diaper every age of diapering from birth to potty training. Pair these 2 up for under $100 and BAM that is literally ALL YOU NEED for 2.5 years! $12-15 bucks for covers (get 3-5) and 2-3 packs of prefolds $13 each.

BUT let me talk you into cloth diapers for a minute… because I get it, it IS scary and intimidating and time-consuming and all that…but don’t you want to leave some planet left to your baby’s future? And your grand baby’s future?

So maybe just consider this:

Cloth diapers seem like a huge expense up front even if you are going the most economical, best practice way… but guess what… you can get more than HALF of that money back by reselling them to ANOTHER mom for her babies to save EVEN MORE disposable diapers … the reduction of your carbon footprint carries on for a lifetime AND you are saving money and getting money BACK! 

Even so, you are still spending less on cloth diapers than you ever would disposables. Budget for and upfront about $500 on cloth diapers. I know that sounds like a lot but look…

The average baby goes through 12 diapers a day for 2.5 years = 10,950 diapers per baby in the landfills.

10,950 multiplied by an average of .18 cents per diaper = almost $2,000 

And each and every baby’s 11K diapers are STILL in the landfills and NOT degraded yet. 

Not to mention the cost of paying workers to pick up your trash plus the fuel to transport dirty diapers to landfills that have to require more money to make room for more dirty diapers.

So imagine reusing those 12 diapers for 2.5 years, then selling them for ½ the price you invested in them to get some return on investment. 

Disposable diapers have given that convenience and ease so as to scare people away from the “complexities” of cloth diapering.

Cloth diapers are NOT complex, but not they aren’t as conveniently easy as a disposable.

Don’t fall into that trap.

I mean what would you have done if disposables were never invented, or they were taken off the market due to saving the environment? You’d be forced to use cloth. 

Now on to some GOOD NEWS!

Southern Comfort Fitteds will be moving away from any plastic packaging. Beginning in 2020 you will start seeing your orders packaged in paper bags and reusable/recyclable shipping poly mailers.

Here is what I can do for you:

Are you finding that you want to consider cloth diapers now? 

If you need personal advice, instructions, guidance, need questions answered I am here for you. Just shoot me an email. 

We can talk on the phone or via facebook or email. However you prefer and I am happy to help you make the leap. 

I’m not here to talk you into buying my brand.  But if you would like more info on Southern Comfort Fitteds I am definitely HERE for that!

Here is a post all about fitteds and the brand if you’d like to learn more.

I am here to help you make that first step into learning how to move away from disposable diapers and start your cloth diapering journey.

We can start slow and one step at a time.

You can email me any time at southerncomfortfitteds@yahoo.com to get a conversation going today at NO cost to you.

I want to do this because it is my passion and my contribution to the planet.

The CDC (center for disease control) has provided us with the proper and legal way to change any kind of diaper (disposable or cloth). 

PLEASE VIEW THIS POSTER FROM THE CDC on how to change a diaper the legal way for safety and health.

PLEASE PLEASE flush your solids, do NOT put them into the trash to be preserved forever inside of a plastic diaper.

Human waste IS quickly biodegradable and actually has a JOB for the planet. When it’s hidden inside a plastic diaper, it can’t do its job and will grow diseases that leak into the environment.

Even disposable diaper packages say to flush the solids on the inside of EVERY diaper.

So email me, call me, message me. Let’s talk about it. 

In the meantime, use this diaper calculator to see for yourself how much money you will throw at disease breeding nonbiodegradable garbage for your precious BABY on top of the rest of your baby expenses (for just ONE baby).

This will give you some cost perspective

SEE CALCULATOR HERE

Below are related posts to global warming and other ways you can educate yourself to help save our planet.

travel-by-maya.com – How to become an eco-friendly traveler?

mydawninglight.com – GLOBAL WARMING & SUSTAINABILITY: It All Starts With You

thebetterperiod.com – Global Warming and your period

irishtwinsmomma.com – How to stop global warming

alternativelyspeaking.ca – The truth about eco-friendly hair dye

ofearthandbeauty.com – How fast fashion is hurting our planet

overwhelmedbeauty.com – 4 ways you can stop WASTING and fight global warming

youthsoloartsy.com – Global warming affects our travel lifestyle

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