Tuesday, September 14, 2010

Trying To Be As Green As Can Be Without Cloth

When I found out I was pregnant I had high hopes of being able to use cloth diapers. But realizing that (a) we have no washer/dryer in our apartment (b) we were having twins (c) we had no where to hang the diapers to sun dry them (d) we're having TWINS...

Well, that sent me scurrying to the next best option: finding the greenest disposable.

Because let's face it, I have limited time and resources here. I don't think any of my neighbors would appreciate me putting sort of poopy diapers in a community-shared washer nor do I have any way of "doing a hot rinse cycle, followed by a wash cycle, followed by a rinse cycle, followed by a nice sun dry on a line in the back yard" or whatever it is that I've read. The good cloth diapers all seem to need more than just a wash through.

When the twins came home, they needed preemie diapers and we went straight to Pam.pers because they fit great and they worked. We tried a package of 7th Gen.eration, but were not impressed with the fit.
Fast forward--now we've tried quite a few brands, included 7th Gen again. We do like the 7th Gen, but we've found an eco diaper that is even better (IMO)--Nature Babycare.
We are very pleased with this diaper, the fit and the lack of leaks. I will admit that since the twins started sleeping through the night, we do use Pam.pers for overnight as I haven't found any eco-friendly diaper that last 12 hours. If you've found one, let me know!

Trying to Be Greener says it better than me: (and check out her blog for a gazillion other green options, it's a great blog!)

I checked out Gdiapers, but I didn’t feel they were an option for me. Again, living in an apartment building, I just didn’t trust the plumbing – would I cause a flood if the diaper didn’t break up enough in the toilet? I understand that flushing them is not the only option – you can just throw out the inserts but they’re also more expensive than other eco-friendly disposables so I passed on them.

I ended up using 7th Generation‘s disposable diapers. I have been very pleased with them so far in that they’re chlorine-free and contain no latex, fragrance, or TBT (tributyl tin), they fit well and there haven’t been any problems with leaks. The big problem I have with them, though, is that I had always thought they were biodegradable they actually aren’t. I also wanted to find a diaper without gel inside.

So, it was back to the drawing board to find something “greener”. That’s when I came across Nature Babycare Diapers.

Product features:

- Award Winning Premium Performance eco-friendly disposable diaper
- Awarded the Eco Label “Good Environmental Choice” of Swedish Society for Nature Conservation (SSNC)
- NO oil-based plastics against baby’s skin
- Kinder and more gentle to your baby and the environment
- Breathable and chlorine-free with natural based material, for natural protection
- Ultra-thin construction gives a non-bulky fit, enabling your baby to move around freely
- Consumer packaging is based on 100% natural renewable material. No oil-based plastics!
- Winner of the 06-07 Silver Award for “Best Disposable Diaper,” featured in Mother & Baby Magazine, a leading UK baby magazine

Features and Benefits of Nature babycare:
-Chlorine-free absorbent materials – does not contribute to dioxin pollution
-100 % natural based back sheet – NO plastic – reduce the greenhouse effect
-100 % natural distribution layer – NO plastic – reduce the greenhouse effect
-100 % compostable consumer packaging – NO plastic – reduce the greenhouse effect
-No latex, fragrance, or TBT (tributyl tin)



10 comments:

Rachel said...

I liked reading this post and am all for 'being as green as reasonably possible' under the circumstances. However, just because I know you have quite a few other local readers, I have never had issues putting poopy diapers (we don't pre-rinse, etc.) into communal washing machines in 2 NYC buildings and have heard much the same from the other cloth diapering moms I meet out and about. We hang dry everything except sheets and towels in our apartment.

nutella said...

We use the GroVia hybrid disposable/ cloth for daytime and daycare. The inserts are flushable and compostable, but we can't flush them due to old plumbing so they go in the trash in a biodegradable trash bag. It's amazing how much less waste they create than a regular disposable. For overnight, we use Earth's Best which are a chlorine free, fragrance free and a bit greener than a regular disposable. They hold 12+ hours of pee overnight.

Meredith said...

Very cool on finding a green option that works. While I cloth diaper, I can't imagine doing it without my own washer dryer. I just signed up for Amazon Mom and it appears that your diapers are part of their 30% off program.

For the Long Haul said...

Those are the same diapers we use! And I love them. We also have a service here in CA called "Earth Baby Diapers" and they use the nature care diapers but they also drive out to my house once a week and pick them up and then compost them for me. It's fabulous. It's like paying a diaper service but getting to use disposables. And all of the diapers are composted. I get newsletters telling me they diverted $7,000 pounds of diapers from landfills for this week. Makes me SO happy and they work great. Here's the website if you're interested. Like I said, this is in CA but they might have something similar in NY...

http://www.earth-baby.com/home.php

Anonymous said...

I believe GroVia has a compostable diaper - not sure of cost. We cloth diaper but I wouldn't do it without my own washing machine. Good work being greener!

Anonymous said...

Also, what about a diaper service? NYC must have these. Our's runs about $.20/diaper which is about $.15+ less than natural sposies, at least when I was doing my research a few months ago.

Anonymous said...

We are planning to cloth diaper with our twins but with a diaper service. Seems much cheaper with twins actually!

Was one of your boys on Gossip Girl last night?

Ruby at Breathedragon said...

Thanks, Puffer, this is great to know - I posted on cloth diapers recently and we're trying to figure out how to start when our baby comes, hoping for a green-as-possible disposable/cloth diaper combo. We did register for 7th generation disposables to use at first, and great to know now that there is a possibly better alternative!

chroniclesofconception said...

great post! we use 7th gen and LOVE EM. tried earth's best organic and despised them. luckily we've never had a problem with leaks with 7th gen overnight. not that lach ever STTN, but he would nurse and go back to sleep without me ever having to change him! i rave about those diapers. anyway, wanted to tell you that Amazon sells Nature Babycare on subscribe & save. If you go to amazon.com/mom and sign up (basically just provide your email address, kids birthdays, etc) you will get 30% off diapers, wipes, etc!! check it out if you haven't already. HUGE savings from buying anywhere else......

tryingtobegreener said...

Just wanted to say a great big thank you for linking to my post about choosing "greener" diapers!

Congratulations to you both with your new babies coming soon!