Monday, July 9, 2007

Dave Mathews is a Green Dad

Not only did Dave Mathews have trees planted to offset the carbon emissions of their tour bus but at Live Earth yesterday he talked up cloth diapers:

"We use cloth diapers for our new baby because I think diapers might be the No. 3 piece of garbage [in terms of environmental damage],"

Yep. Dave was referring the fact that behind paper products and food containers, disposables are the 3rd most common item in our landfills. In one year more than 18 billion disposables are thrown into United States landfills. Yuck. That's a whole lot of untreated waste.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Actually, the cloth vs. disposable debate really depends on many factors. With disposable, more solid waste is produced... but with cloth, more water is used. It really depends:

http://www.ilea.org/lcas/franklin1992.html


"With current information, when determining the best diaper through an energy analysis, disposable diapers are preferred. However they produce substantially more solid waste. Cloth diapers produce half as much solid waste but use more water volume and produce more waterborne waste. Evaluating the best diaper depends on local conditions. If in a drought, it's best to use disposable diapers. If the area has landfill problems, it's best to use commercially laundered cloth diapers. If there are air pollution problems, resort to disposable diapers. The best diaper ultimately depends on the community's situation."

Anonymous said...

Not true! I've read, and of course now I can't find the link... that washing cloth diapers doesn't use any more water than the average adult does flushing the toilet for the same amount of time. So unless you are suggesting that we stop using toilets that use water to flush, and go back to the outhouse days or port-a-johns, the water argument doesn't really stand.

Anonymous said...

Another good point is what's preferred by those who have to wear them!

"Aside from the environmental and health arguments, many parents feel, as I do, that cotton is a purer, softer, simpler choice than paper and plastic, and that if their babies could vote, they'd choose cloth themselves. In fact, my four year old, who has tried pull-ups at night and inevitably wakes up with an itchy rash, has made it clear to me that she prefers cotton."

http://www.mothering.com/articles/new_baby/diapers/joy-of-cloth.html