Posted by Dave on June 22, 2010
I had an interesting discussion with my brother about diapers on the golf course yesterday that lead to a more heated discussion between my spouse and I because she thought I was being unreasonable in my expectations of ‘other people.’ This happens fairly frequently as I don’t understand why everyone doesn’t look at things like I do. 
I had asked my brother what kind of diaper he was going to use with his new baby on the way. He didn’t even think and answered disposables.
I questioned why he made this decision, to which I received the answer “because it’s easier”.
I asked him if he had looked into the cost of cloth diapers vs. disposables or any sort of analysis beyond the simplicity factor, to which I received a negative response.
At this point, because we were at a golf course on father’s day I left the point alone – until the car ride home when I went over the conversation with my wife and noted (even though we don’t plan on having children) I couldn’t see any reason beyond the pain of cleaning the diapers to buy plastic that had to be thrown out after 1 use vs. cloth that would last for a significant period of time. I was told that most parents don’t think like that, they don’t want to deal with the messiness and inconvenience of cleaning diapers when there is a simple alternative available. These are arguments that I really dislike – I’m as lazy as the next person but like to look at the big picture on subjects like this. My arguments for diapers can be applied over many consumer products in use today, such as ziploc bags vs. reusable containers; paper towels vs. rags etc.
Tim had previously discussed his switch from cloth to disposable diapers here – rather than look at it from a quality of life stance, I’m going to look at the impact of using something disposable (in this case a diaper) to something re-usable (cloths). Most of the information I got came from here, which admittedly is a pro-cloth diaper site, however I don’t think the pro-disposable diaper conglomerate has much in the way of an argument given the following:
- Over 92% of all single-use diapers end up in the landfill.
- It’s estimated that a disposable diaper would take 250-500 years to decompose.
- Disposable diapers are the third largest consumer item in landfills, and represent approximately 4% of solid waste.
- Disposable diapers contain traces of dioxin as a by-product of the paper bleaching process, along with several other nasty toxic pollutants, which besides probably not being good for a baby’s skin is definitely not good for the land and soil during the 250-500 years this product takes to decompose.
So, rather than having to deal with some baby messes most people buy something that will have to be dealt with for maybe the next FIVE CENTURIES? Does this make sense? I’m not really sure why there’s even a product like this out there – I would have to say that in this circumstance the environmental impact isn’t being looked at, rather most people are looking at the easier choice right now, rather than the total impact that the purchase will have in the future (hundreds of years down the road).
From what I have read cost of cloth to disposable varies, but let’s say they are approximately the same on average. At the end of 2 years, approximately 6,000 diapers have been put into a landfill if you’ve been using disposable diapers. While if you had chosen cloth, you’d have some tattered rags that could be used around the house, or alternatively (because it’s made of a decomposable material) will disappear (in optimal conditions in about 2 weeks).
As a culture we have created products whose main purpose is to be thrown out in order to make things more simple for us. From a personal finance perspective longer-lasting reusable purchases tend to have a lot of up-front costs that make them undesirable to many people. What is created by the easy choice is a lot of garbage. I’m sure more trash has been created in the last 100 years than there ever has been in the past due to the invention of plastic. From an environmental perspective these products are a nightmare, but most people are not looking at the big picture.
For myself, I attempt to purchase as little as possible and when I do I tend to buy longer-lasting durable products rather than disposable goods. I will freely admit that I do own disposable products (ziploc bags, paper towels etc.) but try to limit my use of them.
I’m wondering:
- Do you think about the purchasing decisions you make beyond the initial outlay?
- If you have your child in disposable diapers did you ever think about cloth? If you chose disposable diapers, how did you come to this conclusion?
Posted by Dave on June 1, 2010
Ten years ago, I was able to move everything I owned (including my futon bed) in one car (A 1990 Nissan Stanza). When my wife and I moved last summer, it took a medium-sized moving truck filled to the brim, along with my car and a friend’s mini-van to get all of our stuff from our one-bedroom apartment to our new two bedroom house. I get frustrated by the clutter that all of our possessions have created in our new house. Looking at pictures prior to when we moved in, there was nothing here (it was a repo house). In the year since we moved, between our possessions moved from our previous one bedroom apartment and things that we have picked up since that time, things have become a little cluttered.
I kind of flipped out a couple weeks ago in frustration because:
- I couldn’t find something I needed in the clutter.
- It was getting difficult to do anything in some areas of the house due to “stuff” being everywhere.
I’d really like to get one of those massive dumpster bins and throw everything I own into it and start over. I can only imagine that kind of feeling, of starting over with a clean slate – to attempt to do it all over again.
Besides not being a financially reasonable option, it would be environmentally irresponsible to just throw everything I own into the garbage. As an alternative my wife and I are going to attempt to either sell (if at all possible) or Freecycle/Donate a good chunk of our stuff over the next few weeks.
I know a lot of people who feel restricted in homes that are significantly larger than ours due to that amount of material possessions they’re storing. I don’t want to be one of “those” people who feel they need to upgrade their house because they have outgrown their small home. I want our small home to feel huge by the end of this purging process and to never have to deal with the clutter and messes that have invaded some areas.
I was given a lot of things as wedding presents, and as a result have a lot of clutter in the kitchen. For example, I went from having one plastic mixing bowl to 3 full matching sets (all much nicer than what I owned). I have 5 frying pans. My wife and I are the only two people in our house, and rarely entertain and we have 8 place settings. Things like this lead to massive amounts of clutter and not a lot of extra space.
So, this is our current project (rather, I should say this is my wife’s current project as I am studying for a large exam that will take place on June 9th) – ridding ourselves of clutter. If successful, we are hoping to have a much less stressful home life, as in the summer we have very little time to clean – we are rarely home on weekends, we are visiting family or friends all over the province. This kind of schedule means that our whole life revolves around either cleaning out the car from the previous weekend or packing it up for the next weekend, and leaves little time for cleaning. With less stuff, we’re hoping for less mess.
Ideally, I’d like to be back to a carload of possessions, but with the inclusion of things like couches, tables and a real bed – this really isn’t possible.
Have you gotten upset over the amount of material possessions you have somehow accumulated? Did you make any money doing it? Did the “closet-piles” regrow soon after, or have you been able to maintain the cleanliness achieved?
Posted by Canadian Dream on April 16, 2010
Despite being a technology geek at times, for example I just bought a blu-ray player and I love my ebook reader, I’m also a little bit of closet luddite. I don’t own a cell phone. I don’t want an ipod, blackberry or even the ipad. A friend of mine the other day handed me her blackberry saying “do you know how to fix that?” as she pointed to an error message on the screen. She was a bit shocked to hear me say “I don’t have a clue, I’ve never used one.”
Perhaps its my environmental bent, but I feel technology should actually be useful to me in some way to justify its existence in my life. Technology to me should either make my life significantly easier in some way and not cost me a lot of ongoing money to keep it. I hate picking up monthly costs that actually don’t do much for me.
So yes the tech geek in me did read a few reviews of the ipad, but ultimately I determined I don’t need/want an ipad. I do a LOT of typing on my laptops and that apparently isn’t a strength of the new ipad. Also I’m not very interested in watching movies or Utube. I’m not much of a media consumer either so overall I thought the ipad was nice looking, but not for me.
I’m against useless technology that actually doesn’t do much for anyone. So to me an ipad is similar to a slap chop, it doesn’t do anything new that I can’t already do with something I already own. This is also why I won’t put in underground sprinklers in my backyard, since I can already water the entire thing by moving the sprinkler I have just twice (small backyard). Yet I do have underground sprinklers in the front (big front yard).
So how do you tell if a technology is useless to you? Well here are a few hints:
- When advertised they use the words “cutting edge” or they discuss all about the “features” on the item that you will likely never use.
- When the item doesn’t do anything new compared to what you have.
- When the item will actually cost you more money and/or time than you are already spending to do something similar.
- When you want the item and you really can’t come up with a great answer to the question of “why do I want this?” that your spouse would actually believe.
- That the item in question will only save you less than 2 minutes a day.
Of course there are many other hints, but you will have to figure out what works for you. Technology is good, but not all technology is useful to all people. Make sure you can tell the difference. Your wallet and the environment will thank you by avoiding buying items that you stop using all that much six months after you get it. Embrace your inner luddite and don’t buy technology you don’t need.
How about you? What technology have you avoided or embraced?
