How far off are widespread disposable diaper bans?

[ChocChip]

I see Vanuatu is the first country to phase in a ban on disposables... a specific case being a small island nation with little space for waste disposal, but given the debate on single use plastics, sure we will see it discussed in other places soon.

I guess the issue is finding alternatives suitable for the mass market, compared to more trivial plastic items like straws, stirrers and cotton buds. The absorbent personal hygiene market as a whole, comprising baby diapers, adult diapers/incontinence products and women's sanitary products, is a massive one. Getting rid of all those things and forcing people to use washable products (which have their own impact in terms of energy usage) would have huge implications for families, carers etc. so it's probably not a decision that will be taken lightly or quickly in major nations, but I can't help feeling it's on the way in some form or other, eventually. Should we start stocking up?

 

[pampers4U]

Single use plastic is an issue that we as a society around the world cannot afford to ignore, I really waiting to see how ABU handles there new biodegradable plastic like diapers, hopefully its a win and a good start by reducing plastic use for many disposable products, use I know these new diapers are not the fix all solution, but by reducing the plastic use say by half is a huge leap forward then what we have now.
While I am skeptical of the whole human impact / climate change, I am certain that we have a responsibility in keeping our waters as clean as possible.. kind of like the saying "no farms... no food" our oceans have been taking a beating and wildlife is already starting to hurt / reduce in large numbers.

 

[depends4me]

I hadn't heard of the Vanuatu situation, so thanks for the post. Yes, the planet is being polluted at an alarming rate, and not just from plastics. Microplastics are getting into the soil, into the water supply, and from there into land and ocean life and then into us and affecting our health. We have just one planet and I bristle at politicians who shrug off proposed solutions because they're "too expensive". I'm afraid that what's too expensive today will become monumentally expensive tomorrow. But I question if an outright ban is necessary. Lots of items are technically recyclable, even if it isn't currently cost-effective or recyclable in every community. I am curious if anybody has tried recycling discarded diapers into...something. Or if that is impractical, if society could make a conscious decision to move away from disposables into something like pad-and-pant systems, where the core could be discarded and recycled, and the outer shell perhaps also recycled when it's no longer useful. We did away with chlorofluorocarbons and leaded gas, and how many people remember when we moved away from discardable soda and beer can tabs? If one large nation lead, I think most others would follow.

 

[Osthagen]

Urghh! Fuckin’ hell! Anyone who would support such a ban is an utter and complete berk at best and a straight-up fuckwit at worst.
If the lunatics take over the asylum, which we’re moving ever closer to, then I’d say not much longer before Orwellian crap like this takes hold.

So-called “progressives” (politically, in a radical-centrist myself) trying to push our lifestyles back into the 1950s, and not giving us a say in any of it. Makes my blood boil something fierce.
As for the environmental side of things, only an ignoramus doesn’t know that cloth nappies are as “harmful” to the environment as the disposables.

I have a daughter in nappies, with another baby on the way. I’m telling you, if it ever gets to the point where we have policemen knocking at our doors, giving the missus and I the business about what fucking nappies to use, I won’t be living in this country much longer.

 

[dogboy]

And to think, before diapers, mothers just carried their babies and let them piss and crap wherever. No problem to the environment there!

 

[Inconinmiss]

I think it will be a long time before disposable diapers are banned. Other kinds of single-use plastics will be banned first.

 

[SlashNBurn]

I think it will be a long time before disposable diapers are banned.

If ever. People in the scientific community are working on ways to make these things more and more bio-degradable. Indeed, bio-degradable diapers, while not "totally" bio-degradable, and have some way to go yet, can be bought now. I'm not sure, but my money would be on disposable diapers becoming 100% biodegradable long before we get anything close to widespread bans on the products.
I'm actually not sure if there are any uses for soiled and urine-soaked disposable diapers, that would reduce the alleged environmental impact of them.
Plus, if a ban like that were implemented... or even considered for implementation...in any western country, there would be such backlash from parents of young children, as well as probably carers for adults who are in diapers, in that it would more than likely....and hopefully...never come into effect.
As we've already had somebody mention disposables are absolutely no worse off for the environment than the cloth, which is absolutely true, the amount of water people waste when they have to be washed...water that will inevitably become contaminated, for obvious reasons, and then the treatment of such water is something that is certainly not without its environmental impacts. Furthermore, the water we use to grow the cotton to make cloth diapers could be used to grow food plants, or things that we actually need, and would reduce major issues like world hunger.
There was a time when I would have called myself an "environmentalist" (an example of this is the fact that I'm vegan, which is partly for environmental reasons). It is now the very people who use the "environmentalist" label, that I increasingly find myself annoyed, and even antagonized by.

 

[SlashNBurn]

And to think, before diapers, mothers just carried their babies and let them piss and crap wherever. No problem to the environment there!

It'd suck if your environment was a floor covered in shit.

 

[ChocChip]

Yes, I think the long term solution is more likely in technology, in biodegradables or recycling, or even super-absorbent washables, which is an idea I’ve had in mind for some time, that one day, what appears to be regular underwear will have the absorbency of a nappy!

Getting rid of disposables in the near future (be it baby nappies, adult nappies and/or feminine hygiene products, which would all present different challenges) would be difficult socially and economically. But it’s not beyond the realms of possibility that a major government may try it, and that others may follow, given how quickly public opinion has moved on the plastics issue.

 

[Spidermanbatman]

I seem to remember reading about a study (and it's at least a decade or two old now, so definitely needs to be revisited) where scientists studied the garbage in landfills after the last outcry over disposable diapers in the late 80s/90s. Some of you may remember that P&G was running ads in magazines like "Parents" of a baby sapling in topsoil with the caption being something like "3 months ago, this tree was in diapers" --the claim being that they were converting used diapers into reusable resources. The reality was something far from that, but it made many parents, concerned over the environment, start putting their child's used diapers out with the recyclables!

Anyway, what this environmental study found was that the largest contributor to landfills wasn't actually baby diapers --which made up something like 1% of the landfill, and not even adult disposables, which, while a bigger contributor, still were not a huge problem. No, the largest contributor was from discarded phone books!

Now, phone books really aren't used anymore today, but I do have to wonder if things like disposable plates, coffee cups, silverware, etc. are a bigger contributor. Certainly, with the aging population, more adults are likely in some form of disposable undergarment too. So, a new study of landfill contributions is probably warranted.

I do wonder about the viability of biodegradable diapers (or so-called biodegradable anything) when it gets thrown in a landfill and isn't exposed to air or light. It could take decades to breakdown in such a situation, if it does at all.

 

[SlashNBurn]

Are there any uses, or at that, possible uses for wet and soiled disposable diapers?

 

[LittleMaddox]

Are there any uses, or at that, possible uses for wet and soiled disposable diapers?

There are multiple uses for urine and feces could be used for biofuel, but the problem is making it worthwhile to extract a usable from an individual diaper, and I can't see any use for the physical diaper plastics themselves any more than any other plastic that goes to the landfill

 

[AddyShadows]

Are there any uses, or at that, possible uses for wet and soiled disposable diapers?

Well, there's always the people who have that. . . unique. . . kink of liking that kind of thing. Lol

But no in all seriousness, You could probably use them as biofuel, another use is recycling, albeit. . . not in the same way as the joke above lol, you'd have to sterilize the crap (Pun not intended) out of the plastic, but you could probably in theory reuse it to make new diapers.

 

[okmis]

An article from December of 1988 cites that diapers comprised 1.5% of landfills by weight. However a more recent study determined that diapers accounted for approximately 38% of landfills by volume. And they further determined an infant's feces and urine can contain any of over 1000 viruses, including live polio, hepatitis et al from vaccine residues. The viruses are extremely hazardous to sanitation workers as well as others through ground water contamination (ie well water). There are a number of documented cases of hepatitis that were proven to be transmitted in this way.

Unfortunately there is no good use at this point for either the biological material or the plastics from the disposable diapers. By the way they may soon pass legislation in the US making it illegal to transport trash across state lines since it would no longer be considered a commodity like it was formerly. If this is the case expect states like NY and NJ to be some of the first to ban disposable diapers and other plastics since all of their landfills are full and they send it all to other states like Ohio who imports the most trash out of any state, but the landfills in Ohio will all be full in 5-10 years if they continue accepting trash at this rate.

 

[RubberJin]

Articles like this are utter scaremongering - they're not going to take away disposables unless/until there's a really viable alternative, otherwise it would negatively affect so many millions of people they'd get voted out in a blink. Mumsnet would crucify them!

This is one very niche example and by the sound of it, it's a very small experiment at that.

 

[Rob110]

it will be years if ever, non disposable diapers are just not practical for work or travel never mind if you have a bowel accident in a cloth diaper while at work or at the mall.

 

[irnub]

And they further determined an infant's feces and urine can contain any of over 1000 viruses, including live polio, hepatitis et al from vaccine residues. The viruses are extremely hazardous to sanitation workers as well as others through ground water contamination (ie well water).

I find the bit about vaccine residues hard to believe. The entire point of a vaccine is that it's an weakened/inert form of the virus. I'd think that any viruses shed from the "vaccine residue" are going to be as harmless as the vaccine itself.

 

[BabyDenise]

I don't think there will ever be a ban on non-biodegradable diapers.

I do think that eventually (and I am talking a minimum of 15 years), biodegradable diapers will start replacing the current versions.

 

[okmis]

I find the bit about vaccine residues hard to believe. The entire point of a vaccine is that it's an weakened/inert form of the virus. I'd think that any viruses shed from the "vaccine residue" are going to be as harmless as the vaccine itself.

The viruses are attenuated but those with compromised immune systems or an immunoglobulin deficiency would be very susceptible, additionally you can read about several documented cases in various reputable medical journals, it just isn't very publicized for obvious reasons. Just like there are cases of communicable diseases spreading and outbreaks in public pools due to urine, it isn't only limited to feces. I read something about one baby that had fifth's disease which normally spreads through respiratory secretions that actually infected over 20 people through urine (Incidental/Accidental ingestion of pool water).
Everyone likes to think there is no harm to disposable diapers or no harm to urinating in the pool, etc. but a lot of stuff is just swept under the rug so to speak.