Why Earth is done with diapers

By Moira Finicane

It’s Earth Day! So we put our ear to the ground and heard, loud and clear, what Mama Earth has to say about baby products. And that is:


“NO MORE DISPOSABLE DIAPERS PLEASE.”


The traditional disposable diaper industry’s (even “natural” or “eco”) impact on our environment and health has been massive, which is what motivated us to create Kudos diapers in the first place. We believe diapers aren’t a parent problem, they’re a human problem. 


Here’s the 3 top reasons Earth is done with diapers:


#1: Diapers are the third largest contributor to landfill waste. The culprit? Plastic. Traditional disposable diapers can take up to 500 years to degrade and release volatile compounds, methane, and other toxic gas as they break down. Kudos is on a mission to get as much plastic out of our disposable diapers as possible. Right now, our core materials = cotton, tree pulp, and sugarcane.


#2: Plastic isn’t just harming Mama Earth, it’s harming our babies. Diaper plastic touching baby’s skin for the first 2.5 years of life has been proven to contain chemicals and VOCs that can absorb into skin and disrupt endocrine and reproductive systems. This recent article found baby’s poop to contain ten times more microplastics than adult’s poop. Want to know more? We'd be happy to connect you to our pediatric allergist and Kudos advisor Dr. Ann Wang Dohlman as to how plastic exposure can also result in delayed contact dermatitis and other systemic conditions.


#3: No diaper is fully compostable. Yet. There’s a lot of confusion around this, especially with “natural” and “eco-friendly” diapers on shelves. We surveyed over 100 Kudos customers and found that nearly half believe “environmentally-friendly” disposable diapers = biodegradable or compostable. This just isn’t true! We are actively pushing the industry to develop more biodegradable diaper parts so that someday, all of our diapers can be thrown in the compost.


It’s not all bad news! The EU recently passed a ban on single-use plastics that is going to apply to baby wipes – and potentially diapers in the future. This is creating a whole new set of incentives for non-plastic diaper part innovation, which Kudos is excited about! And, we think Mama Earth is, too.