paper and plastic.... I'll take fabric, thanks part 1

What started out as a marketers dream of drier, happier, more comfortable babies has turned into a solid waste nightmare. Consider these facts surrounding disposable diapers:

1) Disposable diapers make up 2% of municipal solid waste after beverage/food containers and newspapers.
2) Disposable diapers contain trace amounts of the carcinogen, Dioxin, among the other chemicals present to create absorbency.
3) To diaper 1 child from birth to potty training, 286 pounds of plastic are created and consumed and tossed into our landfills. (This includes packaging).
4) It takes over 500 years to "mostly" decompose all of the plastic found in 1 "disposable"diaper.
5) It takes 1 cup of crude oil to produce the plastic in 1 disposable diaper.
6) Over 250,000 trees are used annualy to make disposable diapers.
7) Rainforests are being destroyed by oil companys at the "rate of 340,000 hecators" per year.
8) Consumption of crude oil is impacting our environment. Oil combustion is linked to more severe drought, higher greenhouse gasses and global weater pattern changes.
9) Developing disposabe diapers is highly toxic in concentrated areas. Cities that have disposable diaper manufacturing plants offer free bottled water to surrounding residents because the polution caused by disposing waste from the plant makes the water undrinkable. (P&G Corp in FL).
10) The diesel fuel used to transport the cases of disposable diapers produces soot and chemicals into the air which gets into our lungs and can stay long enough to cause tumor growth.

Certain area of Ireland have already begun to place an additional tax on consumers who choose paper or plastic rather than reusable fabric bags from transorting their groceries. I suggest we begin to do the same for disposable diapers.

Currently 80% of North American households choose disposable diapers to cloth. Thats 8 out of every 10 families who are contributing to the destruction which is caused by the prodution and use of a one-time-use diaper.

If every family dedicated 1 cloth diaper change per day for the life of their child's diapering years, just think of the natural resources, cardinogens and rain forests we could save?

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