Trash Plastic Diapers for Good

by Andrea Millar — May 2, 2008

I don't have a kid, and I might never get around to it (there's a lot of American Idol to be watched, obviously), but I'm very excited about recent developments in new diaper technology. Although having the occasional diaper drop into my life in spite of my careful avoidance tactics is gross enough, I'm more concerned about the many, many layers of diaper-based trash in landfills across the US (and beyond). I couldn't give you an exact count on this, but I know that babies go through a lot of these little plastic scat bombs per day, and with each dirty diaper lasting 500 years, a baby with average output could easily rack up hundreds of thousands of years of pollution before getting his bad self on the potty train (don't steal that; I made that up...!)

That's why I'm glad for companies like Portland-based gDiapers, which integrate the best things about disposable diapers and cloth into one, with no 500-year plan necessary to manage the waste. Using layers of cotton and rayon to form the external shell, gDiapers have an absorbent disposable inner layer for catching waste. When it's time to get rid of it, you can simply flush it in the nearest toilet, the only catch being that you have to give it a few stirs with a wand first to break up the materials.

There are also all-cloth options out there, and with rising concerns about plastic toxicity, an organic cotton cloth diaper could be the right one for the kid in your life. Supplier Green Mountain makes colorful cloth diapers a cinch to use with their shaped cuts. They even have disposable, but biodegradable, pads made of hemp and rice. Gone are the days of cloth diapers that require careful folding and manipulation; these get rave reviews from people leery of the notoriously leaky square designs of the past.

User friendliness is obviously key here; go green, but find one that works for both you and the kid. And whatever you decide to go with in your quest for a greener diaper, know that I salute you!