Paleo Diapers? What’s the Most Environmentally Friendly Method?
We’re having a baby and there are some pretty daunting aspects about the preparation, especially if we want to maintain a natural, green lifestyle. Diapers are one of the largest contributors to landfills in the US and it’s no wonder. Newborns do their business 10-14 times a day and unless you want to go the ultra-natural route complete with corn cob wipe, you need a mechanism to handle all that.
Babies from Dani Lima on Vimeo.
The top priorities for us were 1) environmentally friendly, 2) effectiveness, and 3) cost.
We investigated cloth diapers as the possible answer to our responsible parenting dilemma, but the time, effort, and limited environmental benefits make them extremely unappealing.
We were relieved to learn about biodegradable disposable diapers but there were a lot of options. How do we choose?
Luckily, the good people at BabyGearLab.com conducted an extensive trial with 24 top brands (11 eco-friendly) of diapers and the result was a resounding winner.
The Bambo Nature brand of diapers cleaned house (no pun intended) and dominated every category except for cost. BGL said:
The competition was fierce in our disposable diaper tests, with 24 top-rated competitors included in the review. But, the BAMBO Nature diaper was unstoppable, either winning, or coming close to first place in every rating metric. BAMBO set the bar so high for performance that no other diaper came close to beating it. The BAMBO was unmatched overall earning the highest score of all 24 competitors with a score of 82 out of 100; a score that was a full 15 points ahead of its closest competitor, Nature Babycare. There was no doubt which diaper would earn the Editors’ Choice award, and our highest recommendation. In our opinion, if you must use a disposable diaper, there is no better disposable diaper on the market, or in our tests, than BAMBO Nature.
As you can see from the data, Bambo was as eco-friendly as they get and worked well too:
If there is something we missed in the Cloth versus Disposable diaper debate, please let us know!
Until then, it looks like the best and most responsible way to go is Bambo. Matched with the biodegradable diaper trash bags, you’re being about as responsible as you can be with regard to diapers.
