Cloth Diapering Decision

If you follow my blog, you may be shocked to hear that cloth diapering required a decision, given my aspiration to be as green as possible.  My husband, D, lovingly was devil's advocate for this one.  Thanks D!  To maintain absorbency and clean smell (both essential in our world), you do two full cycle washes (first cold, second hot) and an extra rinse.  Then, either hang to dry or machine dry.  D wondered about the total cost to the environment, something I try to consider with all my decisions.  With the amount of water we would be using, washing diapers every other day, we wondered what is the total hit the environment would take.  This math requires something akin to quantum physics as you must consider environmental impact of manufacturing cloth versus plastic diapers, landfill intake of both (our covers may have to end up there at some point), water usage to clean one and manufacture the other, fuel usage to deliver either option to store and then to my home, electrical usage of modern washing for the cloth option, water usage to spray off the diapers (just use your imagination here), and even energy used to create, design, and advertise both products.  The list is endless, so we hired an out of work mathematician...oh that's what math majors do after college. They help out confused bloggers.  Instead we focused on our biggest concern of cloth diapers, which is and was the water usage.  Given we live in the Midwest where water is more plentiful and we are not overall wasters of water, the environmental impact seemed acceptable.  Add to that our good fortune that we live in a city without water meters and instead a "system" for charging residents for predicted water usage (I am thinking of digging my own personal lake...;) This means that our water cost is consistent every month no matter what we do.  (really this is our city's attempt to get people to bathe more often)

so, cloth it is after debating the water issue.

The Compromise:  Using much more water and a bit of time

 The Sweet Reward: so much more money in my pocket book, no weird chemicals on Mr. B's patootie, getting a little sunshine when hanging them to dry, no last minute diaper runs where you come home with 20 100 dollars worth of "must haves"

My fav cloth diaper source: Cotton Babies

BTW, Since diapering seems to take over my world at times, I am sure I will have more for you on this topic late.  I am sure the fact that Mr. B is again diaperless (to "take care" of a sore bum following consumption of grapes again) has nothing to do with why my thoughts are floating to diaper matters. 

PS Mr. B just couldn't resist the grapes offered up in the hand of his best bud :)  Yep, that's how we roll.