Why Cloth?

Your Baby.

Banish visions of diaper pins and crunchy plastic pants. Modern cloth diapers are hip, fun, and easy. You can choose from fabrics such as fleece, bamboo, organic cotton, wool and hemp. If you want to use all natural fibers, that’s an option with cloth diapering. By contrast, disposable diapers contain traces of dioxins, a carcinogenic toxin. The powder substance in disposables that absorbs liquid, sodium polyacrylate, is a super absorbent polymer which was banned from tampons due to links with toxic shock syndrome. Cloth diapers are simply a more natural option and natural = good!

The Environment.

In Canada, approximately 400 million disposable diapers are tossed into the garbage everyday. In the US, approximately 750 million disposable diapers per day reach the garbage. That means Canadian and US landfills absorb over 41 billion disposable diapers a year. Each diaper is anticipated to take 250-500 years to decompose. Those are staggering numbers.

Washing cloth diapers does require energy and water. However, if you wash your cloth diapers 2-3 times per week, it will take roughly the same amount of water as a toilet-trained individual flushing the toilet. Moreover, the manufacturing process of disposable diapers requires more energy than that involved in cloth diapers. Although cloth diapers will eventually end up in the landfills, you only use a few dozen, they can be used on multiple children (either siblings or sold second-hand), or they can serve as household rags. Overall, cloth diapers are a more earth-friendly choice.

Your pocketbook.

It’s rare that making a more environmentally sensitive choice actually saves you money. And we’re not talking just a few coins in the piggy bank – we’re talking hundreds to thousands of dollars. Although the initial upfront cost is higher, cloth diapers more than pay for themselves. If your little one wears diapers for 2.5 years, you’ll have loads of free diapering days. And if you have another baby, the savings add up even further…

Check out our Fiction vs. Facts section in our Cloth 101 guide for more great reasons why cloth is an *easy* choice.