On cloth diapering
In my dreams, reporters ask me all the time why it is that we use cloth diapers. I'm going to have to come up with a better reason because "My wife told me so" makes the imaginary reporters mock me. I'm not quite sure what that says about my mental health, but I'm working up a better set of answers.
We use cloth diapers because we're somewhat green. There are many levels of green. We're not quite the ultra-insulated, solar power generating homemakers like my cousin who's electric bill is usually negative. But we are the cloth diapering, Prius-driving, recycling, attempting compost folks who live in our house. I'm not certain that cloth diapering is automatically more environmentally friendly in terms of how much waste water and energy is expended in cleaning them, but I think so. Water can be cleaned and energy can come from renewables sources. I doubt that the energy here comes from renewable sources, but that is the factor that I can't control. And while we do use cloth diapers, we also use disposable diaper wipes. My wife wants to use the washable wipes, but I'm just not comfortable enough with them to go that route.
We use cloth diapers because we're cheap. Cloth diapering requires a substantial initial investment, but once the initial investment is made, the upkeep costs are minimal. Each Fuzzy Bunz/Wunderoo diaper shell costs about $10 used up to $15 new. Inserts are generally about $2-3. More traditional plastic pants and inserts can be found for less. My preference is to have enough diapers and inserts to postpone laundry day to at least every other day. So we have about 20 of each size (small/medium/large) and enough inserts to stuff them. Disposable diapers start at $9 for 48 diapers, which means that I would need to use the cloth diaper 96 times before I break even. With only one child, I would just about break even. Where I start to save money is when I either have multiple children or take the diapers that we have and pass them on to someone else. In some cases, we can even resell some of them. The investment is substantial and is a barrier to using cloth for people who do not plan to have large families or who do not have a lot of money.
Cloth diapers do have an associated upkeep cost. In order to keep the fabric inside the shells from pilling up, I need to wash them in a gentle detergent. The gentle detergent is generally more expensive, but the difference in cost per wash is small. As described before, I have to wash each load twice and dry each load twice. But the total monetary upkeep cost is still much smaller on a per unit basis than the different in cost between disposables and cloth. So cloth will still win out in the long run.
Results of a google search on the great diapering debate - Some of the results from the cloth diapering manufacturers are obviously biased, but
Comparison between cloth and disposables
See section on cloth/disposable cost comparison
We use cloth diapers because we can afford the time. What isn't factored in to my previous cost analysis is time spent laundering the diapers. Here cloth gets its butt wiped by disposables. Time represents another significant barrier to entry for cloth diapering. People who are busy, working, or a single parent do not have the same kind of time to devote to laundry that we have.
There are other barriers to entry into cloth diapering that also come up. It isn't the norm currently, so many people have simply not been exposed to it. Some of those who have been exposed to it do not want to deal with family and friends who haven't been exposed. Many day care centers are ill-equipped to deal with cloth diapering or are unwilling to take it on. Families who travel a lot are inconvienced when they have to deal with cloth diapers (we generally use disposables when travelling).
In the final analysis, we have time to spend and the money to invest. Using cloth diapers agrees with our principles especially frugality and environmental friendliness. But I recognize that other families make other decisions that work for them. I was careful in my previous post to note that with the cloth diapering resources at my disposal using disposable diapers was wasteful. I'm only incurring the waste when I forget to do the laundry.
Just like my wife told me to do.
We use cloth diapers because we're somewhat green. There are many levels of green. We're not quite the ultra-insulated, solar power generating homemakers like my cousin who's electric bill is usually negative. But we are the cloth diapering, Prius-driving, recycling, attempting compost folks who live in our house. I'm not certain that cloth diapering is automatically more environmentally friendly in terms of how much waste water and energy is expended in cleaning them, but I think so. Water can be cleaned and energy can come from renewables sources. I doubt that the energy here comes from renewable sources, but that is the factor that I can't control. And while we do use cloth diapers, we also use disposable diaper wipes. My wife wants to use the washable wipes, but I'm just not comfortable enough with them to go that route.
We use cloth diapers because we're cheap. Cloth diapering requires a substantial initial investment, but once the initial investment is made, the upkeep costs are minimal. Each Fuzzy Bunz/Wunderoo diaper shell costs about $10 used up to $15 new. Inserts are generally about $2-3. More traditional plastic pants and inserts can be found for less. My preference is to have enough diapers and inserts to postpone laundry day to at least every other day. So we have about 20 of each size (small/medium/large) and enough inserts to stuff them. Disposable diapers start at $9 for 48 diapers, which means that I would need to use the cloth diaper 96 times before I break even. With only one child, I would just about break even. Where I start to save money is when I either have multiple children or take the diapers that we have and pass them on to someone else. In some cases, we can even resell some of them. The investment is substantial and is a barrier to using cloth for people who do not plan to have large families or who do not have a lot of money.
Cloth diapers do have an associated upkeep cost. In order to keep the fabric inside the shells from pilling up, I need to wash them in a gentle detergent. The gentle detergent is generally more expensive, but the difference in cost per wash is small. As described before, I have to wash each load twice and dry each load twice. But the total monetary upkeep cost is still much smaller on a per unit basis than the different in cost between disposables and cloth. So cloth will still win out in the long run.
Results of a google search on the great diapering debate - Some of the results from the cloth diapering manufacturers are obviously biased, but
Comparison between cloth and disposables
See section on cloth/disposable cost comparison
We use cloth diapers because we can afford the time. What isn't factored in to my previous cost analysis is time spent laundering the diapers. Here cloth gets its butt wiped by disposables. Time represents another significant barrier to entry for cloth diapering. People who are busy, working, or a single parent do not have the same kind of time to devote to laundry that we have.
There are other barriers to entry into cloth diapering that also come up. It isn't the norm currently, so many people have simply not been exposed to it. Some of those who have been exposed to it do not want to deal with family and friends who haven't been exposed. Many day care centers are ill-equipped to deal with cloth diapering or are unwilling to take it on. Families who travel a lot are inconvienced when they have to deal with cloth diapers (we generally use disposables when travelling).
In the final analysis, we have time to spend and the money to invest. Using cloth diapers agrees with our principles especially frugality and environmental friendliness. But I recognize that other families make other decisions that work for them. I was careful in my previous post to note that with the cloth diapering resources at my disposal using disposable diapers was wasteful. I'm only incurring the waste when I forget to do the laundry.
Just like my wife told me to do.
posted by mypetrock at 11:01 PM
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