Alrighty, I use cloth diapers for my little puddin-pops. And let me tell you most people are super serious about this topic. There is an environmental strong arm trying to bully people into using cloth touting the benefits but it reminds me of the debate on electric cars - sure they're great as long as your electricity source used to keep them charged is better, emissions-wise / environmental costs-wise, than the gasoline you would have burned. And the same is true for diapers. Is the factory that made the cloth diapers energy efficient and using green energy sources? Is the factory making the disposables burning coal? Like so many aspects of scientific inquiry, all of the variables would have to be controlled in order to genuinely tackle this debate and this is just not possible when most of the variables are not even known.
Pros: Cost, Attentiveness, Smell (didn't expect this one did you?), Quick Potty Training (this is an average at best - every child is an individual), does not use up landfill space, limited plastics (in the covers and closures)
Cons: Extra loads of wash (for me about 3/week), water & electricity usage in cleaning, more supplies in diaper bag, cotton is not a resource efficient crop
OK let's begin . . . The cost savings have been beaten to a pulp - there is just no way not to save money using cloth diapers. On a pure diaper purchase basis the savings are about $1500 with the first child and $2000-$2500 with each subsequent child - assuming the cloth holds up after that much use. Naturally, no discussion of cost is complete without mentioning the electricity and water for washing and drying. The water usage is 48L (12.4 gallons) per load of hot water washed diapers (let's face it they're dirty) for an energy efficient front load machine which translates to an additional 15 000L over a 2-year course of diapering. The additional costs of electricity (at 15 cents/kWh) and gas (to heat the water at a rate of $1.4/1000L) is approximately $220 for the same 2 years of use. So the overall savings are ~$1280 for the first child in cloth diapers.
Attentiveness - I find that I check the diapers every hour while baby is awake. This works out better than it seems. I've never had a leak - ever, and I find that rashes are extremely minor on the rare occasions when they do occur. I use a cleansing bottle and water on a cloth to freshen the skin prior to fastening on the new diaper. This seems to be very helpful to the skin. (Oh, I use a system of cloth diapers and corresponding covers by MotherEase - I have no affiliations with this company. I found them on the internet and have found the system to be wonderful.)
Smell - there is something about a disposable diaper that makes odours compound profoundly. Even my sister who all but dislikes children has pointed out that a used cloth diaper bin just does not compare on any level to a used disposable diaper bin. (She had a roommate with a baby in disposables.) And your child won't be stinky either. It's a weird perk but a perk nonetheless.
Potty Training tends to proceed faster with the use of cloth because when the child is wet - they can feel it. Not so with disposables. And this difference seems to make a difference. I've never met or found a source that indicated that training went faster with disposable options. That doesn't mean it's not possible but the anecdotal information available all indicate faster training times and often much earlier training ages.
According to a 2008 Time report, 27.4 billion disposable diapers were sent to landfills in the US resulting in 3.4 million tons of waste. That seems like an awful lot of waste.
As far as plastics go - I know there is a lot of electricity and water used in the production of disposable diapers but was unable to get good numbers for this. If you know of a resource for these figures I'd love to check it out. Note that there is plastic in the covers for cloth diapers and they need to be replaced for each child. (This is the recommendation but I use the same covers for my second child and have not found them to leak.)
One of the many ways to increase the benefits of the cloth choice would be to air dry the diapers, use a front load high efficiency washer and to use organic cotton or fabrics which impact the environment less than cotton.
On to the cons. I already outlined the costs of doing the extra loads in terms of water, electricity and gas but didn't mention anything about the time. I am not one of those people who needs to have everything stacked just so. Because of this, I probably spend a little less time than most on laundry. But this is certainly something to be considered especially since if you don't do the washing you'll have nothing to diaper your baby.
This point will seem trivial but carrying cloth diapers takes up more physical space. There is also the issue that you'll need to carry a plastic bag to bring home the wet diapers. (Not a great display item at a restaurant. And I can't tell you how many times I've come home with the plastic bag of dirty diapers and forgotten to put the bag back in the diaper bag. That means I have to ask for a plastic bag at whatever location I'm at so that I don't have to carry a dirty diaper in my hands or loose in the diaper bag.) You will also likely want to carry a change of clothes - although this is generally true with any baby.
Cotton crops are estimated to use 10% of all agricultural chemicals and 25% of all insecticides which turns out to be more than any other common crop. Hemp would be the best of choices since it requires far less water (less than 1/3) to grow and produces more fibres per hectar than pretty much any other crop produced. (Even growing in arid Alberta, each plant grows more than 6 feet tall. Sadly this means that specialized harvesters are needed.)
As far as the debate goes, you've got to do what's right for you, your child and your lifestyle. You'll also have to live with / justify your decision to yourself and your child eventually. So think through your choice.
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