Cloth Diapers Vs. Disposables - Persuasive Speech

Okay, so this was my "script" for my persuasive speech tonight. As you read, try to picture me standing at the front of a classroom of college kids in their early twenties.

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First of all, I’m no hippy eco-friendly, go-green, environmentalist; I’m just a frugal mom who loves to stay home with my kids. I have 2 kids in diapers, Craz-E is 3 and PrincesS is 4 ½ months.

Now, basic common sense tells us that re-using cloth diapers is better than disposables in an environmental aspect. Buy It – Use It – Toss It verse Buy It – Use It – Wash It – Use It Again. But some people need more than just common sense; they want FACTS.

So let me throw some facts at you.

Disposable diapers generate 60 times more solid waste and use 20 times more raw materials, like crude oil and wood pulp than cloth diapers.3 Over 300 pounds of wood, 50 pounds of petroleum feedstocks, and 20 pounds of chlorine are used to produce disposable diapers for one baby every year.

It is estimated that roughly 5 million tons of untreated waste and a total of 2 billion tons of urine, feces, plastic and paper are added to landfills annually. Although some disposables are said to be biodegradable; in order for these diapers to decompose, they must be exposed to air (oxygen) and sun. Since this is highly unlikely, it can take several hundred years for the decomposition of disposables to take place, with some of the plastic material never decomposing.

The untreated waste placed in landfills by dirty disposable diapers is also a possible danger to contaminating ground water.

Cloth is Environmentally Responsible

We’ve been using cloth on PrincesS for about 2 months now. And I just managed to get Craz-E back into cloth part time this week.

I have a diaper-changing-station setup so all disposables go in a separate trash bin from the rest of the household trash. Prior to the switch, I was sending my husband out to the dumpster with a full kitchen trash bag of diapers 2 to 3 times a week. Now with just Craz-E in disposables part time, we are down to approximately 1 kitchen bag a week.

The instructions for disposables diapers actually say to dump solid waste into the toilet and flush it away, but most parents aren't aware of that. It’s not written on the packaging anymore. This means that human fecal matter is going into our landfills where it can leach into groundwater and possibly spread disease. And technically, it’s is illegal to put human waste into the landfills. With cloth diapers, you flush the solid waste and it goes into the sewage system where it’s treated with all other household waste.

Washing diapers every 4-5 days, I increased my laundry by approximately one load per week. One argument against cloth tries to say that cleaning cloth diapers uses more energy and contributes to the load on sanitary sewer systems and potential water pollution. This view really makes no sense if you think about it. The amount of water used per week to wash cloth diapers at home is about the same amount consumed by an adult flushing the toilet four or five times daily for a week.

 Cloth is Economical

Most parents go through 6 to 8 thousand diapers per child, from birth to about age three. If we take an average of what those diapers cost, that equates to between 2000 and 3000 dollars per baby.

Before PrincesS was born, I was spending $20 every 2 weeks just for Craz-E. That works out to over $500 a year. That would end up being over $1000 a year for both kids that we literally just throw away!

I did use cloth diapers with Craz-E for over a year and a half. We went with disposables when we moved because we took a week to drive cross country and quite frankly, we needed the ultra convenience of being able to just throw the used diapers away. Unfortunately, after the move, we just stuck with it for about 9 months.

We spent approximately $150 when we started cloth with Craz-E. So the initial cost of the diapers we purchased almost 2.5 years ago was recouped in 3 months and we diapered Craz-E for free for over half of his life. In fact, PrincesS is using his diapers now so we are actually diapering her for free too.

Cloth is Healthful

Disposable diapers contain many chemicals considered harmful to humans.

Dioxin, a toxic by-product of the paper-bleaching process, is listed by the United States Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) as a carcinogen. It is banned in most countries, but not in the United States.

Tributyl-tin - a toxic pollutant known to cause hormonal problems in humans and animals.

Sodium Polyacrylate - a type of super absorbent polymer, which becomes a gel-like substance when wet. This is the chemical that allows disposable diapers to absorb so much liquid.

The emissions from ONE disposable diaper were high enough to produce asthma-like symptoms in rats.
I’ve brought a disposable diaper and a cloth diaper for you to compare. The first thing you’ll notice is that the disposable is much thinner then the cloth. You’ll also notice how much softer the cloth diaper is.

The biggest claim of disposable diapers these days is how dry they keep your baby. That gel-like stuff pulls the moisture away and turns it into a jelly. I’m sure you’ve seen a kid walking around with the diaper sagging down to their knees. That sag is all that jelly stuff expanding as it gets wet. That chemical-laden jelly is against the most intimate part of your baby's body, and since most parents wait until the diaper is full to change it, it's there for HOURS. Pampers came out with a new product and says “It is 2x Drier and 20% Thinner, so your baby can play on.” They actually are promoting that you can let your baby sit in their diaper LONGER because they will not feel that they are wet.

Cloth diapers are made of cotton, hemp or bamboo. All of these materials are very absorbent but don’t swell and sag when wet. Some styles include a layer of material that will keep some of the moisture away from the skin but they still feel dampness.

While keeping them drier seems like a good idea, it can actually make your life HARDER in the long run. If you think about how YOU feel when you’re wearing wet clothes, what’s the first thing you want to do? You want to get out of those wet clothes. If you dump a cup of water on your pants, you get wet and you learn not to dump water on your pants. Same concept for kids and potty training. They pee in their diaper, they feel wet, they are uncomfortable, they learn that if they don’t pee in their diaper they don’t feel uncomfortable. If you put a chemical in the diaper that makes it so they don’t feel wet and they don’t feel uncomfortable, how are they supposed to come to the conclusion that peeing in the diaper is uncomfortable. In fact, it’s more of a reward for them. They don’t have to stop playing when they have to pee! So by using disposable diapers, you’re actually prolonging the time that you have to diaper your kids. Children who use cloth tend to potty train approximately 6 months sooner than those who use disposables.

Cloth is Comfortable
Do you wear paper or plastic clothing? You would never even consider wearing paper underwear. It’s just not comfortable. So why would you think putting paper and plastic on a baby would be comfortable? Just because a baby can’t tell you they are uncomfortable, doesn’t mean they don’t deserve to have the same comforts as adults. As you can feel from the cloth diaper being passed around, cloth is soft and cushy.

Cloth is Easy
Hard to believe, but THIS is the cloth diaper system our grandparents used;

a flat piece of cloth and a couple big safety pins. No wonder someone came up with the disposable diaper! Today’s cloth diapers are so different. The style being passed around is known as a Pocket diaper. It goes on pretty much like a disposable. There are also styles that look just like a disposable with Velcro tabs. Once they are put together, even Dad and Grandma can put them on!

Cloth is CUTE!
Once you start using cloth, it is so easy to become addicted! I can actually blow a couple hours looking at different diaper styles and cover patterns, searching for a killer deal from someone who is selling off their diapers now that their kids are potty trained. Luckily, I tend to have good self-control and stop myself from actually BUYING the things I find. There are so many different styles, fabrics, designs, and embellishments. My mother has called me a “diaper snob” but honestly, in the summer, seeing a baby in a cute patterned cover is so much nicer than seeing a baby in a paper, saggy mess.