The "Bottom" Line
I thought I could do it. I bought the reusable diapers. I finally tried them after staring them down for a few days and imagining how they might work. I even bought flushable wipes to make the transition easier. I was wrong. Maybe the diapers are just wrong. Either way, I have three stinky diapers that I can't seem to get the smell out of and I don't want to reuse them anymore. I love the environment, but I love my house, too. And I love the couch that my daughter peed on when her reusable diaper leaked. Leaked is an understatement. She might as well have been naked for the wet spot she left.
So I did what I expect many moms have done and bought biodegradable diapers. I figured that if I wasn't willing to reduce waste, maybe I'd at least add biodegradable waste. Again, I am shortsighted.As I was disposing of my daughter's poopy diaper today I made a snail's-pace connection that although the diapers might disintegrate in less than 500 years, there was no way in hell they were going to be able to do that locked in a plastic garbage bag and sandwiched between thousands of other plastic garbage bags in the landfill. And as I have yet to start composting (I told you I was slow to adapt), I made the grave realization that I am no further ahead saving the environment than I was before. It turns out there are biodegradable bags that will eventually break down within the confines of a landfill, so that's next on the list.And it was the addition of yet another green item to my grocery list that put me on environmental overload. Enough already! Luckily I found an article that helped me breathe a little easier about my choices.http://climate.weather.com/articles/greenfatigue040108.html?page=3So I'm not all that green yet. I'll settle for a nice shade of trying really hard.