Sound Off: What Is Huggies Thinking?

There has been an obvious turn in human thinking, when it comes to our environment and the impact we have on it. I think more people feel the pressure and responsibility to take better care of our planet, as we should. The diaper industry should be no exception and not only are diaper companies scrambling to capitalize on the new “green” movement, some companies are doing so with as little effort as possible! Which brings me to my issue…What is Huggies thinking with their New Pure and Natural Line??

Huggies claim on their pure and natural diaper line, is that they are, well “pure and natural”. Natural what? Plastic? Apparently they “INCLUDE” organic cotton…o.k. bravo for “INCLUDING” (only in the outer cover, mind you) organic cotton, but how much organic cotton is “INCLUDED IN THE OUTER COVER”, Huggies? OH and they include Aloe and Vitamin E (can you see me jumping up and down now)! Here’s my thinking: If their “natural”, as Huggies claims, then why aren’t they biodegradable?

Here’s the big shocker: Diapers take 500 YEARS to decompose! 500 YEARS! Sound very pure and natural to you? Oh and Huggies claim: Diapers only make up 1% of the landfills! (Nice way to avoid the fact that your doing NOTHING to improve the environment with your *NEW* diaper line)!

Here’s a quote from the Huggies Australia site: “Landfill sites are engineered to be stable and low in moisture. In Australia, landfills are so dry and compact they tend to “mummify” their contents. As a result, nothing much breaks down in landfill – even newspapers, which are 100% degradable, remain intact and legible for decades. This means a biodegradable nappy in landfill is normally not given the chance to biodegrade”.

Consumers: How’s that workin‘ for ya? They just relieved themselves of all responsibility.

And why do consumers buy them? Because they made the cover with a nice, soft, white palette that includes green leaves….Making you think they are somehow a “GREEN” diaper!!!! Don’t fall for it!!!!

So here’s my wrap up…

To Consumers: Become educated on the products your buying! Research your companies and find out if their claims are substantial.

To Huggies: Give me a break! Your not foolin‘ this mama!

UPDATE: It has been brought to my attention that I may have inadvertently implied that all families should use cloth….So, I’m going to set the record straight:

I realize that cloth is not for every family, as you will notice from my previous post, we too do not use cloth all the time! As my readers know, we are big gDiapers fans around here! There are a small few disposable diapers out there that you can use without turning to cloth and still help to impact the environment…My hope is that these suggestions will help you choose a more environmentally friendly option if you so choose to. Again, my favorite is gDiapers, as you can flush them, compost them or throw them away and they will decompose almost completely in about 60 days! For those who wish to stick with a disposable diaper…You can go with Nature Baby Care (Made from 60% natural, biodegradable material (much of which contains pulp from Scandinavian forests…they are also chlorine-free and use no oil based plastics). Even the packaging is made of 100% non-genetically modified compostable material.

Seventh Generation Diapers are another option (although not my favorite as they are not biodegradable, that I am aware of) because they contain no chlorine! Seventh Generation said it best: If every household in the U.S. with babies replaced just one package of diapers processed with chemicals containing chlorine with one chlorine free diaper, we could prevent 2,800 lbs of chlorinated hydrocarbons from polluting our air, lakes and streams.

Hope this helps 😉

These are simply my feelings and opinions and I do not claim to represent anyone else! Please do your own research and make your own decisions when considering products and companies you wish to support.