Real Diapers Week 2012: Waste Reduction

Today's Real Diaper Week topic is waste reduction as a result of using cloth diapers. Yesterday, I mentioned that cloth diapers had dramatically impacted my life. It has caused me to think more about other things that can be reused or recycled. Being in the sheet metal fabrication business, my family has always recycled scrap metal and aluminum cans. Our community is extremely lucky to have curbside, single-stream recycling for both commercial and residential! I have always recycled as much as I could, when I was able to, but this service is AH-MAZ-ING! I even saved items at work, before the service was offered commercially, and took them home to recycle. We have a special dumpster for: aluminum & steel (tin) beverage & food cans, plastic beverage, food, & soap containers (containers #1 thru #7), glass containers (all colors of food & beverage jars & bottles), newspapers (including inserts), magazines, junk mail, office paper, books, phone books, catalogs, cardboard & pasteboard (no shredded paper, but it goes in our compost). No sorting or anything. 
My only complaint about the service is that the recycle is only picked up every two weeks. Trash gets picked up weekly, but there are many times our trash dumpster is barely full! The recycle dumpster is generally overflowing by pick-up day. On occasion, we didn't even put our trash cart out for pick up because it's virtually empty. For a family of four, especially with one still in diapers, I imagine that is pretty rare.
Another side-effect of cloth diapers has been our compost. I knew a little about composting. When my Mamaw and Papaw moved to the farm, they saved their food scraps for the chickens. What they didn't eat, was still going back into the soil. My great grandma also had a special bin in her garden. I mostly remember it as a cool barrel we could spin. I was pregnant with Tate when I asked Michael to fence me off an area for a compost pile. The idea came when I was reading about g diapers and read their inserts could be composted. Ingenious!
Our washing routine is extremely hard on our diapers. The combination of our extremely hard water and using a top loader has shredded inserts and destroys PUL (polyurethane laminate). We have better luck with TPU (thermoplastic polyurethane) and polyester covers. When we used our front loader, the inserts lasted much longer, but there wasn't as much water to get them clean. (Yes, I have a machine just for diapers.) I prefer natural fiber inserts, so they aren't as durable as microfiber.

Hemp fitted diaper

Bamboo Inserts

Examples of ruined PUL

When the diapers are too damaged to continue to use, they go in the compost pile. I have even put some covers with PUL in as little mini experiment. So far, I haven't seen anything happening to them. It takes a while, but eventually I can't find the inserts anymore. Last week, I found a chain of threat and at the end was an AppleCheeks label. Occasionally, they get too close to the edge of the fence and the dogs pull them out hoping to pull out some food with them. Michael gets annoyed and throws them in the trash.

PUL diaper

Bamboo lined PUL diaper and eco-friendly mailer

According to Kanga Care (manufacturers of Rumparooz), "Both the TPU laminate and the polyester fabric the laminate is applied to are biodegradable. When composted they will biodegrade in 4-5 years." I couldn't find any information about how long it takes PUL to decompose. Since TPU takes that long to breakdown, I would imagine it takes longer for PUL. That would explain why I haven't noticed much change yet. That amount of time is relatively short compared to the estimated length of time it take for a disposable diaper to decompose.

We have made other changes around the house too. Michael is addicted to using paper towels, but we have cut back on the amount we use. Although we use cloth wipes, we haven't switched to family cloth. I am in the process of switching to reusable feminine hygiene products. I had just bought a new box of tampons when I found out I was pregnant with Mayer. The date of return has long since passed, so I have to use them up before I can make the switch completely. I used reusable breast pads when I was nursing and I used mama cloth after my c-section. 

We have also switched to using more natural cleaning products. When I was pregnant with Tate, I also had Michael put up a clothesline. We don't use it as often as I would like, but we try as often we can, mostly on the weekends. Kansas wind plays a roll too. If it's too windy, I don't want to chance having to chase clothes all over the neighborhood or lose them all together. Most of these waste reduction changes came about from using and researching cloth diapers. There are a few others that go along with another post later this week.