Conference moira::parenting

    Not to set off a religious war here, but wouldn't it
    just be simpler to use cloth and send them to a diaper
    service? Cost is approx the same as disposables, you don't
    even have to rinse them, and they don't smell if you set 
    up your diaper pail right...plus all the ecological advantages
    you've heard all about.
    
    I use a disposable on my daughter at night, and cloth during 
    the day - this routine works well for us.
    
    Lucy

	re: .2  Cloth diapers.

	Well, if you want to pollute our waters use cloth, our land,
	use disposables. Either way you can't win.

    Well I don't know, this idea *sounds* like a good idea but *I* would
    not use it for the following reasons:

   	How is this going to increase the water usage? seems like it would
    increase it significantly to me.

    	In an age where we are all trying to conserve resources some
    toilets have been modified to not hold as much in the tank how do I
    know that there will be enough pressure to get rid of the diaper, have
    you seen what happens to a toilet when a kid puts too much plain ol
    toilet paper in the toilet, I shudder at the thoughts of constantly
    using the rubber gloves to clean out the trash.

    	Along those lines, how do we know what the pipe situation is in
    residential houses? We had to call the plumber because our garbage
    disposal got "gucked up" imagine how chopped up diapers would effect
    our pipes.

    	There is so much garbage and chemical waste in our water system
    now, I would not want to contribute by introducing what could literally
    be TONS of plastics containing gels and perfumes. What are the long
    range effects of this, could we be damaging the water supply even
    more just for convenience sake?

    	Actually the more I think of this, the more I would say that this is
    not a feasible approach to the problem.

    	The battle will wage eternal on cloth vs. disposable but as long as
    people use disposable, we need to address that fact and develop
    diapers that can degrade quickly and that do not contain extra perfumes
    or chemicals.

    			Wendy	

    I use cloth primarily, disposables overnight and on the road.
    
    I would not want the machine in my house. Somehow, the idea of grinding
    waste has never appealed to me. 
    
    While I admire your brother's ingenuity, I think the invention obscures the
    environmental issue but does not solve it. Garbage is one part of the
    problem but the whole notion of disposable resources is what we need to
    change in our culture. We need to recyle and reuse; the invention
    simply flushes the resource down the drain along with the contents.

A lot depends on the cost.  The diaper stage is only a few
years and I tend not to buy items that I know will have limited use.

    We wouldn't buy the machine, simply because cotton diapers are cheaper
    and we believe they're an environmentally sound alternative.  As for
    marketability in general, I would wonder how easy it is to remove from
    the toilet when it's not needed.  If it's necessary to devote an entire
    toilet to the diaper-grinder, then many people would not use it because
    they don't have an extra toilet.  Also, I'd have to wonder how gross it
    would get over time from the poopy diapers.  I wouldn't think that
    water alone would be enough to keep the grunge from building up on the
    grinding teeth and being a real bear to clean out!
    
    We have used cloth diapers for Michael almost exclusively.  He's like a
    little fire hydrant now, so we do use disposables when we're going out
    somewhere that changing won't be very convenient.  And when he poops in
    a disposable, we always to try to dump the waste into a toilet before
    throwing the diaper away.  But for the most part it's cloth, laundered
    at home.
    
    And I don't believe for one minute that we use enough water, soap, and
    bleach to equal the environmental impact of 2 - 3 years of disposable
    diapers being thrown into a landfill!
    
    Just MHO...
    
RE: .4
    > The battle will wage eternal on cloth vs. disposable but as long as
    > people use disposable, we need to address that fact and develop
    > diapers that can degrade quickly and that do not contain extra perfumes
    > or chemicals.
    
    That doesn't solve the problem of human waste polluting our groundwater
    instead of being treated in a sewage treatment plant.
    
    OK, rathole alert.  I'll shut up now.
    
    Steve

    I deleted my base note because it may not be appropriate in this public
    forum.
    
    Thank You all for your replies.
    
    A special Thanks to Kate.

    One more consideration...
    
    My day care center will not take cloth diapers -- disposables only. 
    They say it has to do with health regulations and keeping labelled
    diaper pails for each kid, etc. 
    
    It was hard enough finding a day care center that would take children
    that weren't potty trained...
    
    Kathy