By Dadical
The last couple of years have been a rollercoaster ride of excitement and learning. After months of reading and preparing for the pregnancy and delivery, we were suddenly thrust into a new responsibility that no first-time parent can ever be prepared for.
Although our newborn did come with a manual (the Québec government’s Mieux Vivre), we immediately felt overwhelmed with a new erratic schedule surrounding sleeping, changing, and feeding. As our little human started growing, longer-term questions surfaced such as what to feed her, which languages to communicate in, how to implement a sleep schedule, and how to potty-train her. Some preliminary reading into the last item introduced us to the notion of Elimination Communication (EC) or Natural Infant Hygiene as it is referred to in the West. I would like to discuss the politics and practice of this method from a Dadical perspective, and will do so in a five-part series in the following issues of the Leveller.
Disposable (Diaper) Culture
Are diapers necessary or beneficial in any way? That’s a question I certainly had never considered nor expected the majority of parents pose to themselves when entering the realm of parenthood. However, it is a valid question that warrants further scrutiny.
The cloth-versus-disposable diaper debate has emerged in the public sphere in recent years but our Western culture presupposes that, regardless of material composition, diapers are part and parcel to raising a child. Given the staggering statistics of associated costs and hazards to the environment, health, and the economy, it is mind-boggling that alternatives have not flourished. Here’s the dirty data on disposable diapers:
- 500 years: the estimated time it takes a disposable diaper to begin to breakdown in a landfill.
- 20 billion: the estimated number of diapers dumped in U.S. and Canadian landfills annually.
- 4 million: the estimated number of diapers discarded daily in Canada.
- 5,000-10,000: the average diaper usage per baby until potty-trained (equivalent of 2.75 tons per pre-toilet trained baby).
- 84 million pounds: the weight of untreated raw sewage dumped annually in landfills via diapers.
- 1 billion: the number of trees required annually to make disposable diapers for global consumption—here we must also factor in vast quantities of water, chemicals, and petroleum products required for production.
- 75%: percentage of infants that will suffer from a significant diaper rash before they are toilet trained.
- Dangerous chemicals such as dioxin, tributyl-tin, and sodium polyacrylate are found in disposables.
- Disposables represent the third largest single consumer item in landfills (behind newspapers and beverage containers); 3-4% of solid waste (including 33% non-biodegradable waste) in Canada and the U.S.; and 50% of individual household waste with a diapered baby.
These statistics are frightening. It is hard to relate to such confounding figures but the last point immediately struck me as relatable. With a decent municipal compost and recycling service in Gatineau, our bi-weekly curbside waste was kept to a minimum—at the most, a plastic-grocery-bag full every two weeks. After little Èvie was born and was pooping and peeing what seemed like every hour (11 poops in one day was the record), our garbage can soon filled with waste.
Within a few short weeks, we searched through our mounds of acquired hand-me-downs and located 17 reusable cloth diapers graciously given (along with a breast pump!) by a good friend back home. We quickly weaned ourselves off the disposables (except for during the night—the cloth diapers were not practical at that point because their bulkiness would impede comfortable sleep and they did not adequately absorb the large quantities of pee) and attempted to get into the routine of using the cloth diapers with the ultimate aim of going diaper-free.
The next issue of the Leveller will feature part two of this five-part series and will tackle the politics of the diaper industry.
This article first appeared in The Leveller Vol. 8, No. 2 (October 2015).
