Many baby health sites advocate washing cloth diapers in water that is a minimum of 160 degrees Fahrenheit in order to kill “most” of the forms of bacteria commonly found in babies’ waste. If you want to kill “all” forms of bacteria commonly found in babies’ waste, they recommend boiling cloth diapers at 212 degrees Fahrenheit. The lesser of these numbers, 160 degrees Fahrenheit, is the equivalent to 71 degrees Celsius. That’s still a higher temperature than the 60 degrees Celsius temperature used in the study. Still, 71 degrees Celsius will only kill basic infant waste bacterias like e-coli and staphylococcus aureus. Babies don’t have the same mature immune systems that we adults do, so they are far more prone to infection.

I would agree that when recycled, disposables are probably better for the environment. But how many disposable diaper users actually recycle? And how easy would it be to have it recycled? Probably not as easy as recyling a soda can which I can conveniently toss into my recycle bin which is collected from my house weekly.

I also wonder if the difference comes down to each individual. Perhaps the way that most people are using cloth diapers (washing at high temperatures, using bleach, and using their dryers 4 times a week) would be as harmful to the environment as using disposables and not recycling them. But what if I chose to use cloth diapers and washed them with cold water without bleach and line dried them? Would the environmental effect that I have be better or worse than if I used disposables (and didn’t recycle them)?

When I researched this subject, I read that the results of the UK study displeased the environmentalists who conducted it. They wanted to keep the results underwraps. I suggest to anyone who truly has a desire to make an informed decision- research both sides. We are all responsible for our choices.

The above exchange is very interesting too, but distinguish between facts and opinions…there’s a difference. Once you have the facts, you can make an informed decision and live with it.

But all of you people who CLAIM to care about the Earth refuse to accept the truth simply because it would mean admitting you were wrong at some point. Facts are facts and by refusing to accept them you’re all doing far more harm than good.

If you’ve got some EVIDENCE to the contrary, feel free to post it. Until then I hope you all enjoy the hypocrisy of doing more damage while polishing your halos and refusing to look at reality.

This article’s lack of ecological understanding makes me want to carry more cloth diapers.

I sell disposable baby diapers and this article even made me upset. What about our children’s children, or their children. The planet won’t always be so spread out. We are working on carrying more cloth diapers at our store, for they really are more ecofriendly for generations down the line.

And how, exactly, do you ‘know’ that disposables “take 1000 years to vanish from this planet”? What is this based on? There weren’t disposable diapers a thousand years ago. And if you read the post you’ll see that they’re fully recyclable, meaning they can “disappear’ in a matter of days.

But this is exactly the type of knee-jerk reaction that I expect from environmentalists these days. Ignoring the data and making assertions based on nothing.