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Which are better for the environment: cloth or disposable diapers? The debate rages on.

In 2005, a study in London concluded that, because of all the water used in laundering, disposables were just as green as cloth diapers.

A writer in Mothering wasn’t convinced– she said that “it takes upwards of 82,000 tons of plastic and 1.3 million tons of wood pulp, or a quarter-million trees, to manufacture the disposable diapers that cover the bottoms of 90 percent of the babies born in the US.”

The research goes back and forth–one day cloth is better and then disposables win the next. Consumers become confused. Little do they know that much of the pro-’sposie research is backed by companies like Proctor & Gamble, the makers of Pampers.

Well, which is better? Here’s a glimpse without all the number mumbo-jumbo:

Disposables are used once and discarded. Depending on the brand, they may be made out of recycled materials. Cloth diapers are made once, washed frequently and sold to another baby when outgrown. Prefold cloth diapers can live on as rags, burp cloths, family cloth, whatever.

Disposables are bleached with chemicals. Many cloth diapers are organic (though some ’sposies are, too) and many are unbleached or bleached with natural oxygen cleaner.

Even though cloth diapers use water in the washing process, they are re-used many times. A baby can even skip the whole manufacturing process and live solely off used diapers (and get a wonderful bargain, to boot).

The reusable quality of cloth alone shows they’re more environmentally-friendly than ’sposies. I don’t see how anyone, even P & G, can argue otherwise. It just makes sense.

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