When we first had L, we did what we thought was the environmental thing: we used cloth diapers. Today’s cloth diapers are not what they were thirty or so years ago. Now there’s liners of all sorts, including silk and impregnated wool liners that supposedly keep baby dry longer. “All night!” the makers boast, but at thirteen to eighteen bucks a piece, you’d think they’d just about have to change themselves to be worth it.
And then a little common sense. Though we were not filling the landfill with our daughter’s nasty diapers, we were using a heck of a lot more energy with all the extra washing. Our power bill more than doubled when we had L and were using cloth diapers. Of course, it was late December and we were keeping the apartment a lot warmer than we had been in the past. Still, a lot of that jaw-dropping electricity bill was due to the extra washing.
So, environmentally, it’s the cliche “six of one, half a dozen of the other.” Fiscally, disposable wins by a slight margin.