Hey everyone, welcome back to My Weird Prompts. I am Corn, and I am joined as always by my brother.
Herman Poppleberry, at your service. And Corn, I have to say, that was quite a disclaimer from our housemate Daniel at the top of the episode. I appreciate the heads-up about the mealtime listening.
Yeah, Daniel is currently in the thick of it with baby Ezra, so he is definitely seeing the front lines of this particular environmental battle. It is funny because we talk about sustainability in terms of electric cars or solar panels, but the humble diaper is this massive, hidden waste stream that most people just do not want to think about because, well, as Daniel put it, the icky factor.
It is a huge issue, Corn. I have actually been looking into the numbers on this because it is one of those things where the convenience of modern life has completely blinded us to the ecological cost. We are talking about a product that is designed to be used for maybe three or four hours and then persist in the environment for literally centuries.
Right, and Daniel mentioned he tries to minimize paper use, but diapers are not just paper. They are this complex sandwich of plastics and chemicals. So, where do we even start with the scale of this? If we are talking about a single baby, what does that look like over the course of a couple of years?
The numbers are staggering. On average, a child will go through about six thousand to eight thousand disposable diapers before they are potty trained. In terms of weight, that is roughly one point five tons of waste per child. To put that in perspective, in the United States alone, we are throwing away about twenty billion disposable diapers every single year. That accounts for more than three point five million tons of waste going into landfills annually.
Three point five million tons. And once it is in the landfill, it is not like a piece of paper that might break down in a few months. What is actually in these things that makes them so durable?
That is the real problem. A typical disposable diaper is made of several layers. You have the outer shell, which is usually a non-woven polyester or polyethylene film. That is a plastic derived from petroleum. Then you have the absorbent core, which is a mix of wood pulp and something called super absorbent polymer, or sodium polyacrylate. That is the stuff that turns into a gel when it gets wet. It is incredibly effective at keeping the baby dry, which is why we love them, but it is a synthetic chemical that does not biodegrade easily.
And let us not forget what the diaper is actually holding. When you wrap that all up in plastic and bury it in a landfill, you are essentially mummifying human waste.
Exactly. That is a point people often miss. In a landfill, things are packed so tightly that there is no oxygen, which means even the biodegradable parts, like the wood pulp, do not break down properly. They undergo anaerobic decomposition, which produces methane, a very potent greenhouse gas. And because the waste is encased in plastic, it just sits there. Estimates suggest it could take four hundred fifty to five hundred years for a single disposable diaper to decompose.
So, if King Henry the Eighth had used disposable diapers for his kids back in the fifteen hundreds, they would still be sitting in a pit somewhere in England today.
Precisely. We are leaving a legacy of dirty diapers for the next fifteen generations to deal with. It is a classic example of a short-term convenience creating a long-term environmental catastrophe.
Okay, so that is the what. We know the scale is massive. But Daniel raised a really important point about the reusable options. He mentioned his stomach was twitching just thinking about it. And honestly, I think he is speaking for about ninety-nine percent of parents there. There is this huge psychological barrier.
The icky factor is real, Corn. I totally get it. We live in a culture that has been conditioned to see bodily fluids as something that should be whisked away and forgotten immediately. The idea of scraping, rinsing, and then washing something that has been pooped in feels like a regression. It feels like we are going back to the nineteen fifties.
But is it really like the nineteen fifties? Because when I think of reusable diapers, I think of those flat white cloths and giant safety pins. I remember seeing old photos of our grandmother's house with lines and lines of these things drying in the sun. Is that still what the alternative looks like?
Not at all. This is where the misconception busting comes in. Modern cloth diapers, often called pocket diapers or all-in-ones, are a far cry from the safety pin era. They have snaps or velcro, they come in incredibly cute patterns, and they are shaped exactly like disposables. They have stay-dry liners made of fleece or suede cloth that keep the moisture away from the baby's skin, just like the synthetic ones do.
Okay, but you still have to deal with the... you know... the contents. How do you get past that part? That is the part that makes Daniel's stomach twitch.
Right. So, the logistics have actually evolved too. For babies who are exclusively breastfed, the waste is water-soluble, so you can actually just toss the whole diaper in the wash. But once they start eating solids, you use what is called a diaper sprayer. It is basically a little high-pressure hose that attaches to your toilet. You spray the waste off into the toilet, flush it away where it belongs in the sewage system, and then put the cloth diaper into a wet bag.
A wet bag?
It is a waterproof, smell-proof bag that seals up. You keep your dirty diapers in there until laundry day, which is usually every two or three days. You dump the whole bag into the washing machine, you do not even have to touch the diapers. The machine does the work.
Hmm. I mean, it still sounds like more work than just rolling it up and tossing it in the bin. But I guess when you frame it as a laundry task rather than a biohazard task, it becomes a bit more manageable.
It is definitely a shift in mindset. But think about it this way, Corn. We wash our underwear, right? If you have a spill or an accident, you do not just throw your clothes away. You wash them. We have just been trained to think that diapers are different because they are disposable. If you think of them as just another heavy-duty laundry item, the ick factor starts to dissipate a little bit.
That is a fair point. But what about the environmental impact of the washing itself? I have heard people argue that once you factor in the hot water, the electricity for the dryer, and the detergents, the environmental benefit of cloth diapers kind of evaporates. Is there any truth to that?
That used to be a point of debate, but the data has caught up. A major life cycle assessment published by the United Kingdom Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs in twenty twenty-three actually settled this. They found that reusable diapers produce twenty-five percent less carbon dioxide than single-use disposables, even when you factor in the washing and drying.
Twenty-five percent less? That is significant.
It is huge. And it gets better. The study showed that the environmental impact of production is over ninety percent lower for a reusable diaper. Plus, reusables use ninety-seven point five percent less raw materials. If you use an energy-efficient machine and line dry when you can, that carbon footprint drops even further.
And there is also the water usage in the manufacturing of disposables. People forget that making paper and plastic requires a huge amount of water.
Exactly. The twenty twenty-three study confirmed that the manufacturing and use of disposable diapers actually wastes two point three times more water than cloth diapers do over their entire lifespan. So, from a resource perspective, cloth almost always wins, especially if you use the diapers for more than one child. If you pass them down to a sibling or sell them secondhand, the footprint drops even further.
You mentioned selling them secondhand. People actually buy used cloth diapers?
Oh, absolutely. There is a huge market for it. Because they are so durable, they can last through two or three kids. It is a great way for parents to save money, because let us be honest, diapers are expensive.
Yeah, I was going to ask about that. What is the price difference in twenty twenty-six?
Well, with the cost of diapers having surged nearly fifty percent since the pandemic, you are now looking at spending anywhere from two thousand five hundred to three thousand six hundred dollars per child by the time they are potty trained. A full set of high-quality cloth diapers might cost you three hundred to eight hundred dollars upfront. Even with the cost of laundry, you are saving over fifteen hundred dollars per child. That is a pretty big incentive for a young family.
That is a massive incentive. So we have the waste issue, the resource issue, and the financial issue. But I want to go back to the icky factor for a second, because I think for a lot of people, it is not just the poop. It is the hygiene. There is this feeling that disposables are more sterile. Is there any health risk to using cloth?
Actually, it is often the opposite. Many babies have sensitivities to the fragrances, dyes, and chemicals in disposable diapers. Diaper rash is often caused by the skin being trapped against plastic with no airflow. Cloth diapers are more breathable. And as for the hygiene of the washing, modern detergents and hot water cycles are incredibly effective at sanitizing. Your washing machine is designed to handle this.
It is interesting you mention the chemicals. I was reading about those super absorbent polymers we talked about earlier. Some people are worried about those being in constant contact with a baby's skin.
There is some debate there. Sodium polyacrylate was actually removed from tampons in the nineteen eighties because of links to toxic shock syndrome, though that was a very different application since it was internal. In diapers, it is generally considered safe because it is tucked away in the core, but some parents still worry about off-gassing or trace amounts of dioxins from the bleaching process used on the wood pulp.
Right, the white color of the diaper is not natural. That is all bleach.
Exactly. Most disposables are bleached with chlorine, which can leave trace amounts of dioxins. Now, the industry says the levels are too low to be harmful, but if you are a parent who wants to avoid any synthetic exposure, cloth made from organic cotton, bamboo, or hemp is a very attractive alternative.
Okay, so let us say someone is listening to this, like Daniel, and they are thinking, alright, I am convinced on the environmental side, but I still cannot handle the idea of the sprayer and the wet bag. Is there a middle ground? What about those compostable or eco-friendly disposables you see in the stores now?
This is where we have to talk about greenwashing, Corn. This is a big one. You will see diapers labeled as biodegradable or compostable, and they often have pictures of leaves and babies in grassy fields on the packaging. But here is the catch: if you take a compostable diaper and throw it in your regular trash, it goes to the same landfill as the plastic ones. And as we discussed, nothing biodegrades in a landfill.
So you are paying a premium for a feature that never actually gets used.
Precisely. Unless you have access to a professional industrial composting service that specifically accepts diapers, those compostable diapers are just slightly more expensive trash. Most home compost piles do not get hot enough to kill the pathogens in human waste, so you cannot just put them in your backyard bin.
Wow. So that is a huge misconception. People think they are doing the right thing by buying the green package, but it ends up in the same five-hundred-year rot pile.
Exactly. Now, there are some companies that are trying to set up closed-loop systems where they pick up the dirty diapers and compost them professionally, but those are currently only available in a few major cities. It is a great idea, but we are a long way from it being a universal solution.
What about the hybrid systems? I have seen some where you have a reusable outer shell but a disposable insert.
Yeah, those are a great middle ground. You have a cloth cover that you reuse, but you use a biodegradable insert that you can flush or compost. It reduces the plastic waste significantly while still giving you some of that convenience. It is a good way to dip your toe into the world of cloth without going full-time.
It seems like the biggest hurdle is just the cultural infrastructure. In the past, did we not have diaper services? Like, a truck would come by and take the dirty ones and leave clean ones?
We did! Diaper services were huge in the mid-twentieth century. And they are actually making a comeback in some places. If you use a service, the icky factor is almost entirely gone. You just put the dirty diapers in a bin, they pick them up, they wash them in industrial-strength machines, and they bring you back a stack of fresh, folded, sanitized diapers.
That seems like the ultimate win-win. You get the sustainability of cloth without the personal labor of the laundry. Why did those go away?
Convenience and marketing, Corn. When disposables hit the market in the nineteen sixties and seventies, they were marketed as a liberation for parents. No more soaking, no more pinning, no more waiting for the diaper man. And for a generation that was moving toward a more fast-paced, throwaway culture, it was an easy sell. We traded long-term environmental health for fifteen minutes of extra time a day.
It is the story of the twentieth century in a nutshell. But I wonder if the twenty-first century is going to be about clawing some of that back. I mean, we are seeing it with coffee cups, with shopping bags, with straws. Diapers feel like the final frontier because they are so personal and, well, messy.
It really is the final frontier of the plastic-free movement. And I think what is going to change it is a combination of better design and better awareness. When you realize that your baby's diapers will outlive your baby, your baby's grandchildren, and your baby's great-great-great-grandchildren, it starts to feel a bit more urgent.
You know, I was thinking about second-order effects here. If we moved back to cloth, even partially, how would that change how we design our homes? Or our public spaces? Right now, every public bathroom has a diaper bin, but they do not necessarily have a place to store a wet bag or a sprayer.
That is a fascinating point. Our infrastructure is entirely built around the assumption of disposability. If we shifted back to reusables, we would need different solutions for changing stations. We might need more specialized waste streams. It is a systemic change, not just a personal one.
And what about the impact on the kids themselves? I have heard people say that kids in cloth diapers actually potty train earlier. Is there any truth to that, or is that just an old wives' tale?
There is actually some evidence to support that! Disposables are so good at wicking away moisture that the baby often doesn't even realize they are wet. They can sit in a wet diaper and feel perfectly dry. With cloth, they feel the wetness immediately. It creates a feedback loop where they become aware of their bodily functions much earlier. Some studies suggest that children in cloth diapers potty train six to twelve months earlier than those in disposables.
Wait, that is a massive practical takeaway. If you use cloth, you might have to deal with the laundry, but you might stop doing it a whole year sooner?
Exactly. And in the United Kingdom, they found that twenty-five percent of children are now starting school at age four or five still wearing diapers. If using cloth can cut that time down, you save a year's worth of money, a year's worth of waste, and a year's worth of changing diapers. When you add that to the equation, the icky factor starts to look a lot smaller.
Okay, I am starting to see why people get so passionate about this. It is not just about being a tree-hugger; it is about efficiency, money, and even development. But I want to push back on one thing. For a lot of families, especially those where both parents are working multiple jobs, or those living in apartments without their own laundry, cloth feels like a luxury of time and space. How do we address the equity issue here?
That is a very important point, Corn. Cloth diapering does require a certain amount of stability. You need a reliable washing machine, you need the upfront capital to buy the stash, and you need the time to manage the laundry. For a family living in a laundromat-dependent situation, cloth is incredibly difficult.
Right, you cannot exactly take a bag of dirty diapers to the local laundromat. Most of them actually have rules against it for hygiene reasons.
Exactly. This is why I think the solution cannot just be about shaming individual parents. It has to be about policy and innovation. We need to support organizations like the National Diaper Bank Network, which helps the one in three families struggling with diaper need. We need to invest in truly compostable disposables and the infrastructure to actually compost them. We need to hold the manufacturers of plastic diapers accountable for the end-of-life cost of their products.
Like an extended producer responsibility tax?
Yes. If companies like Procter and Gamble or Kimberly-Clark had to pay for the landfill space their products occupy for five hundred years, you can bet they would find a more sustainable solution very quickly. Right now, the environmental cost is an externality that the taxpayer and the planet are picking up, while the companies reap the profits of convenience.
It is the same issue we see with the fossil fuel industry. The price at the pump or at the grocery store does not reflect the true cost of the product.
Exactly. And until that changes, disposables will always seem like the cheaper, easier option, even though they are actually more expensive in the long run.
So, for someone like Daniel, who is in the house right now, probably changing a diaper as we speak, what is the practical advice? If someone wants to reduce their impact but cannot go one hundred percent cloth, what does a realistic transition look like?
I always suggest the one-a-day approach. Just try using one cloth diaper a day. Usually at home, when you are not going anywhere. It reduces your waste by three hundred sixty-five diapers a year. That is a huge dent for very little effort. Or, try using cloth only during the day and a high-quality disposable at night. You do not have to be a purist to make a difference.
I like that. It lowers the barrier to entry. And it lets you get used to the mechanics of it without feeling overwhelmed. What about the icky factor specifically? Any tips for getting over the psychological hump?
Use liners! You can get biodegradable paper liners that you lay inside the cloth diaper. When the baby poops, you just lift the liner out and flush it or toss it. It keeps the cloth mostly clean, so you are not doing as much of the heavy-duty scrubbing. It is like a safety net for your brain.
That sounds like a game-changer. It basically turns the cloth diaper into a hybrid system.
It really does. And honestly, once you do it a few times, you realize it is just not that big of a deal. Humans have been dealing with baby waste for hundreds of thousands of years. The idea that it is this terrifying, toxic substance is a very modern, very manufactured fear.
It is funny how quickly we forget our own history. We have been using disposables for what, sixty years? Out of the entire history of our species.
Exactly. We are in a very brief, very weird experiment with disposability right now. And the data is coming back, and it is showing that the experiment is failing the planet.
So, looking forward, what is the dream? Is there some futuristic technology on the horizon? I was reading about diapers made from jellyfish or mushrooms. Is that real?
It is real! There is a material called hydromash made from jellyfish flesh that is super absorbent. But the real breakthrough right now in twenty twenty-six is from a company called Hiro Technologies. They have developed what they call MycoDigestible diapers.
Mushroom diapers?
Exactly. They use a specific plastic-eating fungus called Pestalotiopsis microspora. You get a little packet of fungi with the diapers, and when you are done, you put the diaper in a special pouch with the fungi. The moisture from the diaper activates the mushrooms, and they actually digest the plastic and the waste. In lab tests, the whole thing turns into dark, crumbly soil in about nine months.
That is incredible. A diaper that eats itself. Now that is a weird prompt.
It is amazing, right? But until those are mass-produced and affordable for everyone, the most sustainable thing we can do is use what we have, which is high-quality, reusable cloth.
You know, it occurs to me that there is another angle to this, which is the cultural one. In some cultures, they do not use diapers at all. Have you heard of elimination communication?
Oh, I was hoping you would bring that up. Yes, it is a practice where parents learn to recognize their baby's signals—their facial expressions or the sounds they make—and they hold them over a toilet or a potty when they need to go. It is common in many parts of Asia, Africa, and South America.
And people in the West think it sounds crazy, but babies are actually very communicative about this stuff if you pay attention.
They really are. Parents who practice it often find that their babies are essentially potty trained by the time they can walk. It is the ultimate zero-waste solution. No diapers, no laundry, just communication.
Now, I think that might be a bridge too far for Daniel right now. He is just trying to get through the night. But it is a great reminder that our current way of doing things is not the only way, and it is certainly not the inevitable way.
That is the heart of it, Corn. We often mistake convenience for necessity. We think we need disposables because that is what the store sells and that is what our friends use. But when you look at the environmental cost, the financial cost, and the health benefits, the necessity starts to look a lot more like a choice.
Well, I think we have thoroughly explored the world of diapers today. I hope Daniel is not too grossed out listening to this while he eats his breakfast later.
Hopefully Ezra is being cooperative today. It is a tough job, but someone has to do it. And if we can make it a little bit more sustainable along the way, that is a huge win for the next generation.
Absolutely. This has been a really eye-opening discussion for me, Herman. I think the big takeaway for me is that the icky factor is mostly in our heads, but the three point five million tons of waste is very, very real.
Well said. It is about weighing a moment of discomfort against five hundred years of environmental impact. When you put it that way, the choice becomes a lot clearer.
For sure. Well, if you are listening and you have your own thoughts on the cloth versus disposable debate, or if you have tried some of these mushroom or jellyfish diapers, we would love to hear from you. You can find us at myweirdprompts.com and send us a message through the contact form.
And hey, if you have been enjoying the show and you want to help us reach more people, please leave us a review on your podcast app or a rating on Spotify. It really does make a massive difference in helping people find these deep dives.
It really does. We appreciate every single one of you who listens and supports the show. We have been doing this for over five hundred episodes now, and it is still just as exciting to dive into these topics with you all.
It really is. Thanks for joining us on this one. It was a bit messy, but I think it was worth it.
Definitely. We will be back next week with another prompt from the house. Until then, stay curious.
And stay sustainable. This has been My Weird Prompts.
Thanks for listening, everyone. Goodbye!
Goodbye!
