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Joined 1 year ago
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Cake day: June 14th, 2023

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  • I feel compelled to point out this important bit of context for anyone who doesn’t read the paper:

    Overall, based on the four environmental indicators used in this study, home-washed reusable nappies have the potential for the least environmental impact if washed in a water-efficient front￾loading washing machine in cold water, and line-dried.

    The UK study similarly found that colder water and line-drying would sufficiently reduce the carbon footprint to a lower level than disposables.

    But seriously? Who does that?

    For regular clothing, where you can use a more powerful detergent? Sure.

    But for something that goes directly against your child’s most sensitive skin, which will need to be laundered with gentle detergent?

    Maybe we can find a paper on how to do all that without heat but with proper sanitation? Remember, laundry detergent is designed to clean, but not necessarily to sanitize.


  • I’ll see if I can find some better ones. This was just the first one I plucked out of a random citation, because I knew I would get eviscerated without one. But I’ve been seeing the advice about disposables as far back as I can remember. It was even a trick question in an eco quiz when I was a child back in the 90s (i.e. “Which of these things are better ecological choices?”).

    Interestingly the 2006 study itself is an updated version. Disposables did even better in the 2006 study than in the older one: Due to advances in manufacturing and in materials science, they were able to start producing them using less material (which decreases the carbon footprint during manufacturing, shipping, and disposal).