Disposable diapers in landfills

DEFINITION: Single-use diapers made from paper and plastic products

Every year an estimated 27 billion or more soiled diapers end up in landfills in the United States alone. Since the 1970s, environmentalists have debated whether reusable cloth diapers are more earth-friendly than disposables. The convenience of disposables has led to their gaining and holding market dominance in the United States, and their use has spread even to developing nations.

The modern disposable diaper typically consists of a plastic layer treated with a that wicks moisture into the diaper and away from the skin; an absorbent layer of wood pulp mixed with sodium polyacrylate, a polymer that assumes a gel-like form when it is exposed to liquid; and a backing layer made from a plastic such as polyethylene. Leg cuffs and the top of the diaper are made from polypropylene or another water-resistant material to minimize leakage. Petroleum- and wood-derived adhesives are applied as a hot melt to hold the layers together. Some disposable diapers feature a reusable outer cover and a disposable or flushable liner. Other disposable absorbent goods, such as adult incontinence products and feminine sanitary products, have a composition similar to that of disposable diapers.

Although the wood pulp and human contained in disposable diapers are biodegradable, in conventional these materials are sealed within the diapers’ nonbiodegradable plastic backing. Furthermore, landfills do not contain the oxygen and water needed for the components of disposable diapers to break down. It has been estimated that a disposable diaper would take 550 years to decompose in a landfill and 450 years to disintegrate in the ocean.

A 2023 article estimated that a typical baby undergoes about 6,000 diaper changes before toilet training is completed. Economic and cultural factors influence how many diapers a baby goes through before toilet training. In Japan, for example, diapers are changed more frequently than they are in the United States. However, babies in the United States take longer to toilet train, in part because of fears that rushing this phase of a child’s development will cause psychological stress. The United States consumes more diapers per baby than do other countries. Some 96 percent of American babies wear disposable diapers. In 2023, Total Care Therapy estimated disposable diapers (for both infants and adults) accounted for 3.5 million tons of waste in municipal waste streams.

History

Disposable diapers began to appear on the market during the 1940s. The earliest disposables were high-cost, low-performance items intended for use primarily during travel. The diaper brand Pampers, which offered improved performance, was first marketed in 1961 but did not catch on quickly. The only convenience the disposables offered then was that they could be thrown away; caregivers still had to fold and pin them, just as they had to fold and pin cloth diapers. As the popularity of Pampers gained momentum, more brands were marketed, and the competition prompted improvements, such as prefolded and shaped diapers, greater absorbency, leak guards, resealable closures, different designs for boys and girls, and decorative plastic backings. By 1980 disposable diapers accounted for 1.4 percent of the discarded material in municipal waste streams.

While manufacturers worked on improving the convenience of the product for consumers, they also strove to address environmental concerns. They experimented with “green” disposables, which were made from plastic films that eventually broke down in water. Others had backings made from a cornstarch-polyethylene blend to promote degradation after they were discarded.

Procter & Gamble, the maker of Pampers, conducted two separate pilot programs during the late 1980s and early 1990s. One was intended to create a partially flushable diaper. This was partly in response to complaints that fecal matter should enter the system, not landfills. The program was discontinued after only three years, however, because consumers did not want to bother with removing the flushable inner section and discarding the plastic cover. Some municipal officials also claimed that diapers would overtax sewage treatment systems. Finally, the diaper was not compatible with water-saving, low-flush toilets.

In another program, Procter & Gamble set up centers to recycle diapers. The centers separated materials from the plastics, which were processed and recycled into other products. The company found that products made from recycled diapers had low marketability, however. The project was deemed a technical success but an economic failure.

In early 2008 Time magazine reported that cloth diapers had experienced sales increases of 25 to 50 percent in the preceding years. In some communities—including Westmount, Quebec; Vienna, Austria; and Munich, Germany—municipal departments had begun subsidizing cloth-diaper purchases to minimize the number of diapers discarded in landfills. The increasing appeal of reusables arose not only because of environmental considerations but also because of concerns regarding infant health. A 1999 study had found that rats exposed to disposable diapers suffered eye, nose, and throat irritation. A study published the following year linked disposables with high testicular temperatures in boys and subsequent low sperm production. A 2020 study in France found thirty-eight harmful chemicals in disposable diapers that were sold throughout Europe.

Improved design also helped boost cloth diaper sales. Borrowing features from their disposable counterparts, modern cloth diapers included Velcro, button, and snap closures, elasticized legs, and liquid-resistant covers. “Hybrid” diapers were developed that combined reusability and disposability, featuring washable coverings fitted with flushable or compostable inserts.

Meanwhile, the disposable diaper industry made its own advances. Some manufacturers employed a new plastics additive technology to enable diapers to break down after sufficient to light, heat, and mechanical stress. In some brands, chlorine bleaching was eliminated. By 2010 high-temperature composting methods, advanced plastics technologies, and waste-to-energy schemes fueled by diapers were being explored.

Disposable Versus Cloth

Proponents of disposable diapers argue that diapers in landfills are not the real issue; rather, the problem is in general and the limited space for landfills. They maintain that the amount of garbage going into landfills during a baby’s diapering life is minimal when compared with the total amount of garbage adults send to landfills each day. They assert that human urine and feces that travel to landfills with diapers are not really an issue, either, given that pet fecal matter also ends up in landfills, as does containing fecal matter and urine.

Those who object to disposable diapers because they contribute to the volume of solid waste sent to landfills argue that cloth diapers are the better alternative. They cite the potential for human fecal matter in landfills to contaminate with and viruses. Proponents of disposables counter that, whether parents launder their own cloth diapers or have a diaper service perform this chore, energy is burned and is added to the environment. Hot water, bleach, and energy are used in washing and drying diapers. Diaper services consume additional energy by transporting soiled and cleaned diapers in fossil-fuel-burning motor vehicles, not to mention adding to traffic congestion; however, services have been shown to consume less wash water per diaper than does home laundering.

In regard to the energy and resources used to manufacture both types of diapers, neither appears to be an ideal option from the standpoint of the environment. Cloth diapers are typically made from cotton (although diapers made from other renewable resources, such as hemp and bamboo fiber, have become increasingly popular), and growing cotton consumes huge amounts of resources. Cotton is one of the most water-intensive crops grown, and vast quantities of pesticides are used on cotton unless it is grown organically. In addition, harvesting and transporting plant fiber consumes energy, and the chlorine bleach used in processing cotton produces toxic by-products. Spinning the fiber into cloth and fashioning it into diapers uses still more energy.

Conventional disposable diapers are made from wood pulp; although this is a renewable resource derived from trees, it does not replenish itself as quickly as cotton. Disposables also contain plastics, which are derived from nonrenewable resources. Their manufacture consumes water and energy and involves chemical bleaching agents. Effluents from the pulp, paper, and plastics industries have a that rivals that of cotton-growing and -processing effluents.

The ways in which cloth diapers are washed and dried have a major influence on the environmental impacts of reusables. Home laundering tends to consume more water than do the laundering processes used by diaper services, but home launderers can minimize the environmental impacts of the use of cloth diapers by washing the diapers at lower temperatures and by line drying them instead of tumble drying them.

Bibliography

Anca, Andrea. "Babies Exposed to Highly Toxic Nappies Face Severe Disease Threat Later in Life." European Environmental Bureau, 21 July 2022, eeb.org/babies-exposed-to-highly-toxic-nappies-face-severe-disease-threat-later-in-life/. Accessed 17 July 2024.

Aumônier, Simon, Michael Collins, and Peter Garrett. An Updated Lifecycle Assessment Study for Disposable and Reusable Nappies. Bristol, England: Environment Agency, 2008.

Brower, Michael, and Warren Leon. The Consumer’s Guide to Effective Environmental Choices: Practical Advice from the Union of Concerned Scientists. New York: Three Rivers Press, 1999.

Kesherim, Ruben. "Diaper Facts and Statistics: Average Cost of a Diaper." Total Care Therapy, 23 July 2023, www.totalcareaba.com/statistics/diaper-facts. Accessed 16 July 2024.

Management Institute for Environment and Business. “Procter & Gamble Inc.: Disposable and Reusable Diapers—A Life-Cycle Analysis.” In Environmental Management: Readings and Cases, edited by Michael V. Russo. 2d ed. Thousand Oaks, Calif.: Sage, 2008.

US Environmental Protection Agency. “Advancing Sustainable Materials Management: Facts and Figures 2013.” The United States Environmental Protection Agency, June 2015, p. 71, www.epa.gov/sites/production/files/2015-09/documents/2013‗advncng‗smm‗rpt.pdf. Accessed 17 July 2024.