With a new little one in the house, I've started to rethink the whole 'disposal diaper' issue. The average diaper takes about 500 years to breakdown. YIKES! Cloth diapers are out of the question, as laundry is my least favorite chore, but I have recently learned of 'gDiapers'. The idea is baby wears little 'gpants' which are machine washable and have a removable, flushable liner, made out of natural fibers and are 100% biodegradable. HMMMMM
Has anyone ever tried these?
www.gdiapers.com
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2 comments:
When I worked at The King County Solid Waste Division, we were dealing with how to advise the public on exactly this issue! The result, check out Tom Watson's post at: http://www.metrokc.gov/dnrp/swd/ecoconsumer/documents/SeattleTimes_11-04-2006.pdf.
Tom says the Wastewater Treatment Division warns against flushing these gdiapers down the toilet due to problems that may damage home plumbing and the overall sewer system.
Hi there,
My name is Jason Graham-Nye - one of the founders of gDiapers. We were surprised to read Tom's assessment. So we contacted the editor who has since published a clarification. (See below)King County hasn't actually done any testing on the product. They broadly advise not to flush anything but toilet paper.As a city utility they are not in a position to either endorse or discourage the use of a product.
The product has been used in Australia for 15 years. There we have worked with waste water facilities to establish that the product is complimentary to their systems. We have also passed our flushability tests here in the US using P&G's flushability guidelines.
There are reviews of the product at babycenter.com and we have a user group of around 500 members at www.flushability.com.
We are working with kerbside composting programs in Seattle and Oakland to have the wet only diapers included. They compost in 90 days. As the 3rd biggest consumer product in landfill, a new approach is needed and we think gDiapers is it.
I hope that helps.
Cheers
Jason
dad/ CEO
Dear Mr. Graham-Nye,
Thank you for the letter concerning gDiapers and The EcoConsumer, a freelance column in The Seattle Times' publication called digs. I appreciate having the information brought to our attention. We'll be running a clarification for The EcoConsumer in The Seattle Times.
Thank you again for writing.
Judy Averill
digs editor
News Features
The Seattle Times

From: Jason Graham-Nye [mailto:jason@gdiapers.com]
Sent: Monday, November 06, 2006 8:31 AM
To: Opinion
Subject: Letter to the Editor
Importance: High
Tom Watson’s November 3rd, EcoConsumer column on “Disposables or cloth? Environment weighs heavily on diaper decisions” fairly accurately captured the complexities of the diaper debate, and did a good job of providing readers with many resources for greener diaper alternatives.
Unfortunately, the article’s reference to gDiapers—a new eco-friendly diaper that you can flush—was both incomplete and inaccurate. gDiapers was not contacted by the Seattle Times prior to the piece going to print, but had we been, we would have communicated the following.
gDiapers are a breathable diaper you can flush. gDiapers consist of a washable, cotton outer pant and a polypropylene-free, and flushable refill. gDiapers has passed the flushability criteria of the National Sanitation Foundation and the Water Environment Research Foundation. gDiapers are also certified as “Cradle-to-Cradle” by award winning eco-industrial designers William McDonough and Michael Braungart. This certifies that everything that goes into making a flushable refill gets reabsorbed by the planet in a neutral or helpful way.
gDiapers also has no knowledge of any official testing by the King County Waste Department, or input into the apparent advisory against flushing gDiapers. For more information about gDiapers flushability visit www.gdiapers.com/happyplanet and for Cradle-to-Cradle, visit www.mbdc.com
Kind Regards,
Jason
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