Good day to you all, a million thanks to you for your comments, upvotes and for always reading my post.
Still on the issue of diapers. Some weeks ago I started writing about diapers in which I have written two episodes. The first episode of the article was tagged "Let's Talk About Diapers And Their Absorbing Properties". It focused on diapers and its various absorbent materials and their corresponding properties. Episode two made us know that some Diapers could cause more adverse effects than Diaper Rash. Today's episode will be intimating us about the biodegradation of Diapers and the possible environmental hazard caused by undegradable Diapers.
Diapers are described as pant-like wearable underwears designed to retain and hold moisture content of excretion, it also allows the person or baby wearing it to conveniently defecate and urinate inside it. It is made up of materials with high absorbency, which is usually worn under the cloth to prevent soiling the environment with excretory products. Diapers are categorized as cloth diapers or reuse diapers and disposable diapers based on the absorbent materials used, but they could also be categorized based on their properties of biological decomposition as biodegradable and non-biodegradable Diapers.
Cloth diapers are made from materials that could be washed and reused for many times, such materials include; cotton, microfiber, hemp, bamboo, or plastic fibers e.t.c. Cloth Diapers are made from biodegradable materials as the absorbent material. Several layers of these materials are put together to make a cloth diaper. Initially, Disposable Diapers are made from biodegradable materials such as cotton fibers, cellulose wadding, wood pulp fluff, or fluff cellulose as absorbent materials, but due to the fact that these disposable diapers made are extremely bulky and costly, other disposable diapers made up of chemicals as the absorbent material was adduced which are less bulky and much less costly. These diapers are majorly made up of plastics materials and petroleum products that could take hundreds of years to decompose.
Considering these two types of Diapers and their compositions, we could conclude that cloth Diapers are biodegradable while the disposable Diapers are not biodegradable.
Image Taken By Me
Before we proceed, we must ask ourselves a question, are all cloth Diapers biodegradable? Very soon we will get to know the answer to the question
Eco-friendly Diapers;
In every home today, disposable Diapers contribute largely to the number of non-biodegradable material as waste. It is almost becoming impossible not to find used disposable Diapers included in every home waste. According to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), potentially toxic waste from disposable Diapers stays in landfills for centuries before decomposing which makes it be considered as the number one toxic waste in landfills. Also, it is estimated that a baby will use 7000 disposable diapers on average before botty training which means that used disposable diapers will always be included in household waste on daily basis, based on this fact, used disposable Diapers are considered as the 3rd largest contributor to household waste.
To save our environment from these toxic non-degradable materials, there is an urgent need to reduce the amount of non-biodegradable diapers each family sent to the landfill. To do this, we must patronize the eco-friendly or environmental-friendly diapers such as cloth diapers instead of these common and problematic disposable diapers.
Let's make a simple analysis to show that it is more economical to go for cloth and reusable Diapers than disposable diapers. It is estimated that a baby will use 7000 disposable Diapers on average before potty training, a disposable diaper cost $0.4 on average, which means that the 7000 disposable Diapers will cost around $2800. Alternatively, if one decides to go for cloth or reusable Diapers, like 40 - 50 of different sizes are chosen as the baby grows. A cloth or reuse diaper costs at least $10 which makes it sum up to like $500. It is clear that cloth diapers are much more affordable than disposable diapers.
Hybrid Diapers
Hybrid diapers are described as the intermitted product of both the disposable diapers and the reusable diapers. In other words, hybrid diapers are diapers that could be reused and can also be disposable. It contains less absorbent chemicals as of the disposable diapers, also it has lesser cloth materials than the clothed and reusable diapers. As discussed earlier, the chemical constitutes of the disposable diapers are made from a non-degradable or less degradable material which caused a larger percentage of landfill content, actually, 80% of landfill components is made up of non-biodegradable diapers.
To reduce the uncontained problem, hybrid diapers were made. Hybrid diapers reduce the landfill content by almost 50%, due to this fact, it is advisable to go for hybrid diapers. Also, hybrid diapers are preferable because of its reduced cost. Irrespective of the kinds, types, and brands of diapers you choose, the same sanitary and disposal precautions apply. To prevent diaper rashes and any other infections related to diapers, diapers must be changed or replace within eight hours of usage.
The used diapers must be disposed appropriately, do not dispose in the river or in a stream, do not dispose diapers in water closets. It was noticed that 90% of used diapers go to the downstream which endangers the aquatic lives, it caused low healthy and poor aquatic lives. The chemicals from these diapers a poisonous, therefore it is very dangerous to dispose them in rivers and streams. Diapers are better disposed if it can be dried and incinerated at a very high temperature.
Hope I have able to educate you about diapers. Look forward for more educative post from me.
References
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diaper
https://study.com/academy/lesson/what-is-acrolein-used-for.html
http://www.madehow.com/Volume-3/Disposable-Diaper.html
https://www.babygearlab.com/expert-advice/what-is-inside-those-disposable-diapers
http://www.chemistryislife.com/the-chemistry-of-baby-diapers
http://www.chemistryexplained.com/Di-Fa/Disposable-Diapers.html
