Green Diapers: A Lot of Sh*t to Think About

Posted on July 16, 2008 by Matt Embrey in Gear+Gadgets, Home+Decor

Nature Boy & Girl is a Swedish brand of diapers that are free from chemical dyes, bleach and fragrances. They also have a GMO-free cornstarch instead of plastic. This makes them compostible (in a compost facility, landfills will not cut it). They use a mix of SAP and wood pulp certified by the Swedish Society for Nature Conservation. You can get them at www.drugstore.com.

Seventh Generation’s diapers are Chlorine free, plus the are made in the USA. Seventh Generation has a reputation for transparency and they disclose all of the materials used in their diapers which include SAP and wood pulp. They are readily available in most stores across the US.

Tushies are another brand made in the USA that is Chlorine free. They use hydrogen peroxide to bleach their diapers. They have two different lines, Tendercare which uses SAP and Tushies which use wood pulp and cotton instead of SAP. This makes for a bulkier baby bottom, but that might serve as a nice cushion while you baby gets his/her land legs.

gDiapers are another option that are a disposable/reusable hybrid. gDiapers consist of a washable, cotton outer “little g” pant and a plastic-free flushable diaper refill. When you baby does his/her business you simply remove the liner and flush/trash or compost it and insert a new liner. While this gDiaper outer is washable, since they stay relatively clean they require less washing, use less energy and you don’t need to have as many as you would cloth diapers.

Check out the Cloth Diaper Guide over at Diaper Jungle.

baby, cloth diaper, diaper, parenting

15 Responses to “ Green Diapers: A Lot of Sh*t to Think About ”

Joel Williams

16. Jul, 2008

My cousin uses gDiapers that you mention and highly recommends them. They can however be extremely messy as you have to take the “core”/liner out each time to flush. I didn’t ask for a demonstration…. Also cost a fair bit more than disposable but she feels much better about using them, and now come in a cool orange color.

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Leslie

16. Jul, 2008

My husband and I have come up with the perfect solution. We just don’t have kids. Problem solved.

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Garvin Yeung

17. Jul, 2008

My wife and I have been using gDiapers for our son Delano for over a year now. For new parents who haven’t invested in cloth diapers, gDiapers are a good hybrid for ease of use and convience when on the go. I know some cloth diapering parents who carry the cloth inserts along with seperate diapers for each change, and carry them back home to wash at home. Some types of cloth diapers like pocket diapers you have to wash both the liner and the diaper covers as well with each change.

gDiapers are great because parents can use the flushable inner inserts or they can use the traditional cloth prefolds inside the gDiapers interchangeably. So one can use the cloth diaper inserts at home and use the flushable inserts for over nights and going out. As for the flushable inserts, they compost very well, we compost all the wet flushable inserts in our composter.

Also gDiapers are cradle to cradle certified for those who are interested in these eco-labels.

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MamaMitrou

17. Jul, 2008

Cloth at home, and disposables out and about is the ideal combo. Cloth diapers are much easier than many people imagine, and many of them are really quite absorbant. Even though the SAP may not come in “direct” contact, it is still mixing with a baby’s urine and getting a baby’s bottom wet, especially at night when they are not getting changed as often. Better safe than sorry when it comes to chemicals on our little one’s private areas.

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Elizabeth

17. Jul, 2008

In my experience, modern cloth diapers actually keep baby drier and more comfortable than disposables. We have used Fuzzibunz (cloth pocket diapers) almost exclusively for our two boys and the few times I’ve used disposables (certain travel situations) I’ve been shocked at how damp and rashy their little butts stayed compared to our usual cloth diapers.

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Matt

17. Jul, 2008

Hey thanks for sharing. It sounds like gDiapers or regular old cloth diapers are a no brainier based on your experiences.

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RecycleCindy

20. Jul, 2008

This is an excellent post about the use of disposable diapers versus cloth. You have covered all the pros and cons concerning the diapers. I chose to use cloth diapers but did have a few disposable ones for long road trips and other times when I didn’t have access to water. It’s important to wash out the cloth diaper and also throughly wash your hands after handling cloth diapers. All in all, I really like using cloth. I think they are just as absorbent as disposable if folded and pinned properly.

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Fern Greene

24. Jul, 2008

Thanks for this summary! We’re in the midst of this debate with baby #2, complicated by the fact that none of our local stores sells Seventh Generation or gDiapers - so we’d be driving about 25 miles round trip to stock-up, instead of walking a mile or two.

But laundering cloth diapers in our small townhouse without a sink (or even a reasonable place to keep a bin) to soak them … that seems like a recipe for chaos. How do people manage in smaller spaces? We’re lucky to have our own washer/dryer, but I’m not sure we can manage the added laundry load.

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Mali

29. Dec, 2008

You can’t force a parent into doing some diaper changing they are not used too. If some one believes in the method, they will do it out of care and love for the environment.

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Matt Embrey

30. Dec, 2008

@Mali

Thanks for commenting. I agree, you cannot force anyone to do anything, however you can educate and encourage and hope more people will try more eco-friendly diapering options.

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Charndra

15. Jan, 2009

Reduce, reuse, ‘precycle’ - doing a combination of eco-disposables, washable cloth and elimination communication (EC) is a great way to reduce diaper related waste and the environmental impact.

Any reduction is good…

Becoming “Part Time Diaper Free” the way our grannies were - perhaps a goal to aim for to help the Earth?

Visit Part Time Diaper Free to discover more about this ancient practice!

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Pregnancy

29. May, 2009

wonderful comparison, many people many thinking. But we shall go for the one that is best for ours for sure

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choose your baby's gender

03. Jul, 2009

I think i just need to get used to changing diapers.. Im due on september.. whether I like it or not, im gonna need to do it..
lol

Love the first photo of the baby frowning with his hand on his chin. Sooo cute!

-Kim

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Quick Green Reads For The Weekend Volume 103. | The Good Human

06. Feb, 2009

[...] 50 years ago everyone used cloth diapers, but in the early 1960’s towards the end of the baby boom, disposable diapers hit the scene to take care of the increasing amount of baby “boom boom” that these amorous new parents were dealing with. Today 95% of families use disposable diapers. At the tune of 5000 to 8000 diapers per child that ads up to 3.6 tons of dirty diapers (2.1% of America’s municipal solid waste). With all that poop piling up in the landfills people started to question the environmental impact and a largely potty partisan battle began between the cloth and disposable diaper industries… and the cloth vs disposable debate rages on. [...]

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