Millions of Americans are about to get hit with diaper sticker shock

[meadowlander]

12. Disposable diapers take 500 years to biodgrade.

So while washing cloth diapers uses hot water, electricity and detergent the environmental impact is negligible compared with disposable diapers. The baby wears the disposable diaper for a few hours before it is soiled and discarded and then the baby's 15x great grandchildren will still be dealing with the environmental impact.

I know that raising children is difficult, especially for lower income parents. But that doesn't change the bigger picture impacts that the choice to have kids and the choice to use disposable diapers have on the planet that we all have to live on. If people paid a fraction of the actual cost that the impact that disposable diapers have on the planet then everyone would be using cloth diapers and thanking their lucky stars they have that as an option. As it is, the bulk of that cost is being deferred to later generations and to poorer countries that get paid to be landfills for the richer ones.

Is it wrong for a single lower income couple to want to make their difficult lives a bit easier? No. But it's a problem when 140 million people a year all make the same convenient but environmentally unsound choice and there's no reality check on the consequences.