Pamper me

Photos have no relevance to Pampers (in case you were wondering. See below).

Two reflections I found beautiful. Rainy sidewalk on 34th street and a mountain lake in Canada.

Diaper talk:
Someone recently sent me an email regarding diapers. I don't know why, I don't have kids. Perhaps because many of my friends consider me a semi tree hugger. I'd like to think I'm a bit more conservationist than the average gluttonous, wasteful, environmentally challenged human. Admittedly, most of my environmental practices are done by accident and lifestyle choices. I don't eat meat, don't drive a car, live in a tiny place, don't have kids, wear recycled thrift store clothes (mostly), walk a few miles a day (on average), take public transportation when needed...blah blah blah, I'm perfect. Anyway, I knew diapers were horrible but...

Did ya know?

The average kid uses 6000 diapers during infancy.

80% of all diapering is done with disposables.

27 billion diapers are used every year.

Creating 82,000 tons of plastic waste.

Using 1.3 million tons of wood pulp.

Falling 250,000 trees to produce annually.

Needing over 3.5 billion gallons of oil to produce.

Diapers create 7x the amount of solid waste when discarded and 3x more waste when manufactured. They also create 10x the waste produced by fast food restaurants (hard to believe).

First introduced in the U.S. in 1948 by Johnson and Johnson.

Pampers were invented in 1959. Brought to the public by 1961.

It's illegal to dump ANY human waste into public landfills. The waste leaches into water systems causing various diseases to thrive. However, proper diaper disposal is impossible to enforce.

Then again, using cloth cotton diapers is bad (not as) because you have to wash them. And, cotton is a horrible product from every aspect. That's another story. Cotton (non organic) is the dirtiest crop known to man. Cotton production uses 16% of all the worlds insecticides grown on only 2.5% of cultivated land. Cotton production uses Aldicarb, one of the deadliest insecticides (1 drop can kill a man) and now found in at least 25 countries and 16 or our state's groundwater.

Bottom line to all of this: Using disposable diapers stems from pure laziness, convenience and lack of regard to the environment. PERIOD! Actually, reports from mothers who have switched to organic cotton diapers say it's not that big of a deal to switch over.

In the perfect world: Don't use disposable diapers, don't use or wear anything made of cotton unless it's organic. And, wash everything in cold water.

Like that's ever going to happen.

Bottom bottom line: People don't give a shit!