Now I'm not as anti-disposable as some, because I'm against disposables not because they're wrecking the planet but because they are so darn expensive and they make you walk to the dumpster more. For instance: did you know that 5% of the nation's waste is disposable diapers? Eeeeeeeeew. Add to that all the paper plates, napkins, cups, plastic flatware (can't really call it "silverware", can you?), paper towels, disposable wipes, disposable baby washcloths (these exist, I got a package as a free sample), disposable "face wash" dealies, kleenex, grocery bags, plastic wrap/ziploc bags and that's a lot of money that one can throw in the garbage, folks.
(Conspicuously absent from this list: toilet paper. There are people who do without it--I know how but please don't ask me to explain because it's gross--but remember the thing about dysentery up top? Yeah. We won't be going TP-free anytime short of the apocalypse here.)
So what does one use instead of disposables, you might ask? At my house, we use:
- Cloth diapers (when I'm two-footed; we are being expensive right now)
- Cloth diaper wipes (or "little scraps of flannel" as we call them in the business)
- Real washcloths (duh) - takes care of a whole host of the above
- Cloth napkins with napkin rings to avoid cross-mouth contamination
- Real plates & silverware (also duh)
- Cleaning cloths (or "rags" as we call them in the business)
- Handkerchiefs, when I can remember to do so
- Those Ziploc containers with lids - which are supposed to be disposable, but which last a long time before you must dispose of them, a lot longer than the bags which seem to be built to disintigrate after 1-2 washings. Yes, I wash them.
How much money does this save us? Well, I've never really priced out the other stuff, but I know that not buying disposable diapers saves us about $150 per month. I know this because that is what buying disposable diapers during this broken-footed time has cost us. And I know that using rags instead of paper towels not only works a lot better, but saves us the price of the Big Costco Package of paper towels every 2-3 months. (With a dog and two kids, you spill a lot.) And while I suppose the cost of laundry might be a factor if you live in Vegas where water is expensive and rare, where I live we aren't even metered, so laundry is very cheap for me, just the cost of electricity and the soap. It makes much better sense to wash things and use them again.
The other advantage to cloth is that it's much more comfortable than paper in a variety of applications. This is why disposable underwear hasn't really caught on, except when they make you wear it in labor and delivery. Would fancy-dancy restaurants continue to give you cloth napkins if the paper ones felt just as nice? No, because at least two-thirds of what they charge you for is "atmosphere". I have also handled a cloth vs. a paper diaper and thought about the comfort factor--I know I'd want the cloth one.
Now, all that said, while I'm incapacitated we've been using disposable everything (well, not the washcloths), except I put my (one good) foot down when we finished the package of paper plates and said no more! It was ridiculous how much garbage we were making, between the plates and the diapers. We went from having to take the garbage out every 2-3 days to having to take it out every day without fail. Yikes.
Even in normal life I keep some disposables on hand--a few paper diapers for babysitters/overnight, a few paper towels for messes that I want to sequester in the trash or draining bacon on (though I want to get a rack for that), and kleenex for the Husband. But more and more as I think about where our money goes and what we get for it, I just don't see paying any more than we have to each month for stuff we use once and throw away. At least with cloth options, at the end of the item's useful life, it can become a rag.
So, want to see another post about switching?
Happy cloth-ing,
Breanna
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