Real Diaper Week - Environment

Welcome to day two of Real Diaper Week 2012.  I am very proud I have done two posts in a row since I am not a frequent blogger.

Anyways, the topic for the Real Diaper Week blog hop today is the environment.  To me this is a pretty easy topic.  It is stated that it should take a disposable diaper 500 years to decompose in a landfill.  With disposables only being around for 50 years, we realistically have no idea if that number is low or high.  Personally, I can't imagine throwing that much trash away.

Do you want to know how many diapers are thrown away in your area?   I am going to give you a little math to calculate the number of disposable diapers thrown in a landfill per MINUTE.

Visit this website for 2010 US census numbers

Choose your area and find the total population number for your area and the percent of that population under 5.  I will use the numbers for my area as the example

Total Population of Richland County, South Carolina - 384,504
Percent Under 5 - 6.4% (0.064)
Use the precalculated multiplier - 0.0025
= number of diapers per MINUTE thrown into our landfills
=(#Diapers per minute = 384,504 * 0.064 * 0.0025)
For my area, Richland County, that equals 62 diapers entering a landfill per MINUTE!

For those of you who want to see the calculation in full form without the shortcut multiplier, follow this calculation
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(Total population * % Under 5) / 2 / 0.9 * 8 / 24 / 60 = Diaper Per minute

When you multiply the percent under 5 on the total population, you get the total number of children 5 and younger.  

Divide that number by 2 to calculate the number of children 0-2.5yrs, assuming all of those children are in diapers.  

Next multiply that result by 0.9, assuming that 90% of those babies are in disposables. 

Next multiply that number by 8 for the ~8 diaper changes per day

Divide that number by 24 for the changes per hour

Divide that number by 60 for the changes per minute

As you can see, there are some assumptions about the ages of children in diapers and the numbers of diapers per day.  But, this should give a decent guess as to the number of diapers entering a landfill per minute. 
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Here are the numbers for other areas that I have calculated:

Richland County, South Carolina - 62 diapers per minute (DPM)
Lexington County, South Carolina - 44 DPM
South Carolina -  752 DPM
New York City, New York - 1288 DPM

Are your surprised?  Did you expect higher or lower numbers?  How many diapers enter a landfill in your area?

Real Diaper Week - Outreach

Welcome to Real Diaper Week 2012!  Today's topic for the Real Diaper Week blog hop is outreach.

Why outreach?  Doesn't everyone know that cloth diapers are an option?  All babies have to wear diapers......

Sounds sort of silly, until you really think about it.  If you were to ask people on the street what they think about when they think of cloth diapers, I would bet that most people would picture prefolds, rubber pants, and pins.  While pins and prefolds are still used today, they are not the only option!

There is a generational gap when it comes to cloth diaper knowledge.  Most of us were not diapered in cloth, or if we were, our parents hated using prefolds, pins, and rubber pants.  When we are looking for advice/support from our families, cloth is one of the last things they recommend.  And what are parents supposed to think when our families tell us it is not worth it and so hard to do?

For those of us who have chosen cloth, it is our responsibility to educate the public and other parents.  Show off your diapers when you are out in public.  Start a conversation.  Mention it at your doctors office.  Brag about how easy they are.

Don't forget to mention a few key reasons to try cloth diapering:
Cost - you can save around ~$800 per year per child!
Environment - in our local county 63 disposable diapers enter a landfill every MINUTE!
Chemicals/comfort - wouldn't you rather have cotton against your body than plastic?

Here at Carolina Cloth, outreach and education is very important.  We hold local Cloth Diapering 101 classes at a local maternity spa - Expecting Well.  We also offer home consults (free!).  At both we like to introduce parents to the different styles and nomenclature.  We explain the differences between the brands and let you get your hands on the diapers.  Our belief is if we can take the fear and the unknown out of cloth diapering, parents are more likely to try.



Have you converted any families to cloth diapering?  How do you teach others about cloth diapers?

Real Diaper Week - Sales!!

Everybody loves a good sale!  In honor of Real Diaper Week and the Great Cloth Diaper Change being less than a week away - Carolina Cloth is having a different sale every day.  We are selecting manufacturers to feature and to be 15% off for the day. 

Schedule of sale products:

Monday:  Thirsties
Tuesday: Rockin' Green and Eco Sprout detergents
Wednesday: BumGenius
Thursday:  Planetwise and Best Bottoms
Friday:  Fuzzibunz

Non-local delivery parents - if you want to take part of the sale for multiple days (meaning multiple orders).  You only need to pay shipping costs once - I will combine your order into one shipment. 

Email me - leslie@carolinacloth.com if you have any questions!