All Things Supercinski

Our motivation for using cloth products came from a desire to reduce waste, conserve trees, and reduce our exposure to chemicals. It has been an easy transition, taking small steps at a time.

Cloth Diapers - this was a decision we mulled over for a while after Josiah was born. What helped us decide was actually getting to see our friend’s diaper system in place, who let me borrow two different kinds to experiment with for a week. I was sold. We use BumGenius 2.0 (one-size) and Fuzzi Bunz, and I highly recommend them both. This site is helpful in answering all your cloth diapering questions, and this one gives you reviews from moms who actually use the diapers. The cost for cloth diapering one child is about the same as if you used disposables, but the benefit is that subsequent children can be diapered for free! The average baby will use about 10,000 diapers before toilet training. An estimated 1 billion trees a year are required to produce disposable diapers.

By using cloth, you reduce the chemicals (dioxin) your baby is exposed to, reduce waste by at least a full trashbag a week, and save trees.

Disposable diapers are a highly processed product, and they can remain intact in landfills for many years (some sources quote upwards of 100 years). Disposable diapers contain a layer of absorbent wood pulp (usually from managed forests), and chemicals specifically included to improve absorbency and wick wetness away from the skin. While this system works well in keeping the skin dry, it can also be a potential skin irritant. Disposable diapers contain chemicals banned in the 80’s in women’s tampons, but continue to be used today to improve absorbency in children’s diapers. (Wikipedia)

Baby Wipes - I sewed these out of a single layer of flannel and wash them with diapers. They are bigger, wetter and handier for cleaning up baby poop than disposables, plus you know what goes into them (no chemicals!) I just make a solution of water and soap (just a squirt of Dr. Bronners and about 2 cups of water), pour it over them and squeeze out some of the water. They sit in an old wipes box that we were given when Josiah was born.

Mama Cloth - For basically the same reasons as stated above, I switched to cloth for my feminine products. I found some great hemp pads here, and have sewn a few of my own. If the thought of using cloth for this makes you squirm, do some research into what goes in a tampon or disposable pad. Additionally, cloth pads are dramatically more comfortable than disposables.

Canvas Grocery Bags - Yes, I am that lady in the grocery store that brings all of her own bags. After seeing the Parisians do it so elegantly, we got ourselves some bags and now have enough to bag all of our groceries during our big shopping trips. Plastic grocery sacks account for an inordinate amount of trash, take 1,000 years to decompose, and while they can be recycled, why not use your own? You can carry twice (or thrice) as much in one bag and the baggers tend to be more careful with your produce this way. There are some really cheap canvas bags available online in cute colors. Think about it: you use your plastic bag for almost 20 minutes on your drive home from the store, but it will last much longer than it is ever useful. Some interesting numbers about plastic bags:

~500 billion to 1 trillion plastic bags are consumed worldwide each year. That comes out to over one million per minute. Billions end up as litter each year.

Plastic bags don’t biodegrade, they photodegrade—breaking down into smaller and smaller toxic bits contaminating soil and waterways and entering the food web when animals accidentally ingest them.

In 2001, Ireland consumed 1.2 billion plastic bags, or 316 per person. An extremely successful plastic bag consumption tax, or PlasTax, introduced in 2002 reduced consumption by 90%. Approximately 18,000,000 liters of oil have been saved due to this reduced production. Governments around the world are considering implementing similar measures.

More from reusablebags.com

Also, one of the biggest problems our local landfill has is corralling all the plastic bags that blow around off the landfill - additional labor is used to clean these up regularly.

Cloth Napkins - I sewed some cloth napkins from some material a friend gave to me. They work great, don’t waste, and they were free! It was also a fun craft project for me.

Cloth Paper Towels - We bought some paper-towel-like cloths (thinner than a real towel, but with little pocket “weave” to pick up stuff) at Sam’s. There were 25 towels that I cut in half to be closer in size to regular paper towels to yield 50 reusable towels for only $5.99. They are just like paper towels, but cotton! I’m really enjoying cleaning everything with them. Paper towels and toilet paper account for the greatest consumption of virgin (first cut) trees. (Ideal Bite)

I don’t buy paper plates or cups as we still have some of those left from our wedding to use when we are hosting a large group of people (showers, parties and such), and if it is less people, we just use dishes and wash them. We reuse all of our ziploc bags at least a few times, and a friend just showed me these nifty bag replacements. The only paper products besides actual paper that we use these days are toilet paper and cottonelle wipes, but replacing them with cloth is still a way off for us.

Stay tuned, for Green Cleaning, airing soon!

This entry was posted on Tuesday, July 31st, 2007 at 7:00 am and is filed under Green Living, Home Life. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.