Part-Time Green

After I posted "The Green Side" blog, I had several mommy friends of mine tell me they wish they could be more green but it was hard because they work full time or go to school and their babies were in daycare and that made it hard to do things like cloth diaper (apparently lots of child care providers refuse to use CDs ??).

I know each family is different and not everyone mom or dad is willing to CD and that is completely fine.  I get it, trust me.  But I do want to encourage parents who want to do things like cloth diaper, but think they can't because they can't do it all the time.  It definitely is not an "all or nothing" thing!!  I still use Seventh Generation disposable diapers if Abby gets a rash and needs to have zinc oxide diaper rash cream on her booty (which is a HUGE no-no with CDs) or if Momma hasn't gotten around to doing the CD laundry and there aren't any left!

In fact, Cottonbabies (retailer that makes the  bumGenius cloth diapers) launched a campaign called "Change 3 Things" in which they encourage people to simply use just three cloth diapers a day and if you do that, they outline how much that really DOES make a difference (even though you aren't CDing 100% of the time)!

Based on the information on their website:

100,000 parents committing to change 3 cloth diapers per day resulting in:

• Thirty to fifty million pounds of prevented landfill waste.*
• One hundred million disposable diapers not purchased.*
• A combined savings of over $24M in the next year.**
• Increased public and media awareness about the environmental and economical benefits of cloth diapering.

* Numbers are approximate and based on information published in the Environmental Agency's Science Report SC010018/SR2.
** Based on approximately $0.25 per disposable diaper NOT purchased by participants because they chose to change a cloth diaper instead.

That's a huge environmental impact and all it would take is three diapers a day!  And even if you couldn't do three, you could only do one, and that would be worth it because you could keep ONE more diaper out of the landfill!  (Especially when you know that that one diaper would have taken 500 years to decompose!!!)

Anyway, that is my two cents on the whole thing.  You can be "green," even if it is only part-time! ;)