cloth diapers – Greenwashing

Greenwashing Disposable Diapers

Sal Popal
Some alternatives to disposable diapers are cloth diapers. If more people used cloth diapers, they would save lots of money and using cloth diapers is actually better for the environment because disposable diapers create waste in landfills. Disposable diapers are the third most common consumer product in landfills. With cloth diapers, you never run out of diapers, so there is no reason to stress about having to go to the store to purchase more diapers. Diapers are expensive and I believe that using cloth diapers is a cheap and great alternative to disposable diapers. Cloth diapers are mainly used by people, that truly care about the environment.

Another alternative that I believe is worth a shot, is for parents to use buckets and try and teach their baby’s how to poop and pea, before they are even ready to be potty trained. Parents could walk around with a bucket in hand all day at their house if needed and they could try an catch their baby’s poop and urine. It is possible that the bucket method could even speed up the potty training process for babies. Once the baby is ready to be potty trained, it could be a much smoother transition because the babies were taught to poop an pea in a bucket. There are some countries, that actually use this method. My aunt that lives in Sweden did this for her kids because she couldn’t afford to buy all those disposable diapers. I believe that if more parents actually tried this method, they would be much happier because they would not have to spend thousands of dollars for disposable diapers. In order for parents to get involved and for this social transformation to be possible, I believe that there has to be some big named people out there in the world, such as celebrities, that use this method on their babies. Then a lot of parents that love those celebrities, will be inspired by them and would then try the method on their baby’s because celebrities can easily influence people to buy things, for example; kind of like how Lebron James makes people want to buy his shoes. This may sound stupid, but maybe one day, someone can invent some type of sensor, that parents can attach to their baby’s body, that would be able to tell the parents, when the baby is about to urinate or poop. Then the parent’s could run and get that bucket or have it there already and be ready to catch their baby’s poop or urine.

If all parents implemented these two methods that I discussed. There would be no need for disposable diapers to be made and the environment would then be better off, however I believe that this a long shot from happening and disposable diapers will always be there and people will waste thousands, while diaper companies will make fortunes off of parents. Disposable diapers can claim to be going green as much as they want, but they will still hurt the environment.

Saving Our Poopy Planet, Honestly!

Victoria Cox

The Honest Company is a new line of eco-friendly baby products. This company is a huge example of green washing because people always feel better when using environmentally friendly products with their children (this helps them feel as if they are helping the planet a little more by going ‘green’). This is a company that qualifies as green washing because they are putting a whole new out look on baby products, and not just eco- healthy diapers and wipes. The Honest Company has taken their eco-friendliness to a different height by creating waste –reducing soaps, shampoos, healing balms, detergents, detangling spray, cleaning products, etc. The products they create that are plant based products as well as packaging that is renewable. I would say that The Honest company would suggest that we change almost everything that pertains to baby products, I think that they are trying to become the new and improved and eco-friendly baby product company. They are expecting people follow in their footsteps and redesign their whole dynamic.

A less green washed version of the company would have to be cloth diapers. This is a better solution than plant based product (such as The Honest Company) because this idea expands reduce, reuse, and recycle. Cloth diapers reduce the amount of waste being sent out because they are machine washable. A major obstacle in changing to cloth diapers would have to be keeping the stench of messy butts out of the diaper (even after a cycle in the washing machine). To make this product into a reality, we would have to come up with a eco-friendly and baby-friendly non harmful chemical to revamp (refresh) the diaper to make sure it is sanitary (especially after a poopy diaper,yuck!) Another obstacle to overcome in creating a cloth diaper would have to be the storage…think about it for a second, if you send you baby to their childcare center and they poop, what to do with the stinky diaper until you get home to put it in the washer? Putting the diaper in a bag would be the most logical answer, but wouldn’t the bag have a stench? Yes, but if we could create a bag with a baking soda insole so it was soak up the stinky diaper smell (the baking soda insole would be re-changeable). This could be a HUGE economic transformation because it, first and foremost, will create a whole new job market including; scientist, factory workers, etc. The downfall to this product would be that instead of throwing the dirty diaper in the can, washing the diaper daily would be a mandatory duty…this would cut back on the whole reduce notion. Honestly (ha, no pun intended), this cloth diaper movement could create a whole new social transformation as well. This could be a new social norm which could change the way we look at diapering our babies forever, breaking societal norms in terms of baby care.