He Should Have Baby Diaper Service Printed on His Van So He Would Never Have to Lock It Again
THE DIAPER SERVICE IS MAKING A Improvement
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May 6, 1990
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Pb: The once-ubiquitous diaper truck had all but disappeared in the county. But at present white vans busy with a diapered baby in a trefoil hat and brandishing a sword are visiting the neighborhoods.
The once-ubiquitous diaper truck had all simply disappeared in the canton. But now white vans decorated with a diapered baby in a trefoil hat and brandishing a sword are visiting the neighborhoods.
''In the last year, business organisation has increased past almost 40 percent,'' said Jack Mogavero, president and principal executive officer of General Health Care, a company that supplies wellness-care products to nursing homes and hospitals and is based in Piscataway, Northward.J. It also owns General Diaper Service, which is run from Piscataway but has outlets nationwide. ''Westchester Canton is i of our biggest growth areas.'' The white vans belong to General Diaper Service, and Mr. Mogavero credited the resurgence in business organisation to his customers' social consciences. ''People are concerned about the environment and the legacy that they'll get out behind,'' he said.
Picture a good for you newborn baby in his infirmary crib, wrapped snugly in a blanket and his outset disposable diaper. If all goes well, the babe can expect to live by the historic period of 75. His diaper, even so, will have a considerably longer lifespan. Environmentalists estimate that each disposable diaper will last 500 years in the average landfill.
An Industry Was Spawned
When disposable diapers were beginning introduced, as a travel help in 1961, they were viewed by nigh parents as a godsend. Their convenience spawned what today is a yearly $3.5 billion industry, accounting for nigh 85 percent of the diaper marketplace. The boilerplate baby uses most 6,000 diapers from the fourth dimension he is born to when he is fully toilet trained. An estimated 18 billion diapers are tossed in the trash each year, making up roughly ii percent of the nation'due south garbage. The vast bulk of disposable diapers finish up in landfills.
Such points are cited by environmentally conscious mothers today who accept begun diapering their babies the same fashion they themselves were diapered - in cloth.
''Basically, I switched back to cloth diapers out of guilt,'' said Lisa Davis, a New Castle mother of 3. ''When I was using plastic diapers for my showtime two and threw them abroad, I knew they weren't really just going to go away and disappear. Think about information technology: when my kids grow upward, they tin go back and visit their original diapers in the landfill. And that thought alone was plenty to brand me go to cloth.''
Marilyn Cox, who said she was the first female parent in her Chappaqua neighborhood to convert to material diapers, echoed a like sentiment.
The Cotton Alternative
''When I used disposable diapers for my get-go daughter, I would just look at this huge pile of plastic diapers that concluded upwardly in our garbage,'' she said. ''And then I realized there was no reason for it. At that place'southward a unproblematic alternative: cotton. And here was something I could do personally that would make a real deviation.''
Mr. Mogavero recalled that when diaper services get-go appeared in 1940, a boon for mothers who had been washing their diapers at home, business organisation took off. Merely during the 1960'southward and 1970's, disposable diapers took over the marketplace, and cloth-diaper sales lagged.
''It was a dying business,'' said Frank Johnson, a General Diaper Service deliveryman. ''It was depressing. But today we're getting about 100 new customer start-ups a week. I go to every boondocks you can think of in Westchester. Business is booming.''
Westchester sales take more than doubled for General Diaper over the concluding yr. Full general Diaper now has 506 customers in the county, up from 250 last year. General Diaper is the only diaper visitor serving Westchester, but its general manager, Ken Nolton, said he receives one or ii calls a calendar week from people interested in starting up diaper services.
''Anybody is trying to get on the bandwagon,'' he said. ''One guy fifty-fifty called to ask if we were a public corporation. He wanted to buy stock - he heard information technology was the stock of the 90's.'' General Health Care is a privately held company.
While the basic cloth diaper hasn't changed much over the years, several innovations accept made them more convenient to use. Most diaper services no longer require that the diapers be rinsed or soaked subsequently they are emptied. And most cloth diapers are now used with waterproof diaper covers that wrap around the babe'southward bottom and shut with Velcro tabs, thus eliminating the need both for rubber pants and safety pins.
''When I used to guard years ago, I always worried that the pins would stick the infant,'' said Kim Castleberry of Bedford, who said she expected her first infant in July and planned to utilise material diapers. ''The movement to Velcro is a pleasant surprise. It makes my determination to utilise cotton that much easier.''
Not a Consumer Revolution
But the return to cloth diapers is by no means a major consumer revolution. There are mothers who still retrieve younger brothers and sisters diapered the one-time-fashioned style.
''I was 13 when my brother was built-in, and I tin yet recollect the aroma of ammonia from the diaper pail in the business firm,'' said Margaret Atkinson of Chappaqua, a female parent of two. ''You had to rinse them, soak them; so the pins would stick the babe. By the fourth dimension my daughters were born I had no intention of going through that once again, even if some things have inverse.''
A woman who was depositing her glass bottles and metal cans at a recycling center in Ossining said she considered herself a potent environmentalist, merely she drew the line at diapers.
''I'll do my function in other ways, but no way will I give upwardly my Pampers,'' said the Millwood resident, who declined to give her proper noun.
Some parents seeking the benefits of dispensable diapers accept switched to brands that are marketed every bit biodegradable. But in that location are environmentalists who believe that consumers are being mislead by their labeling, and the Federal Trade Committee has begun an investigation into products advertised as ''biodegradable'' and ''environmentally friendly,'' including diapers. The agency seeks to substantiate the claim that those products represent a meaning ecological improvement.
The Employ of Cornstarch
Regular plastic diapers have polyethylene plastic sheeting covering the diaper'southward absorbent inner layer. Biodegradable diapers comprise cornstarch in their liners, and their marketers say they degrade in five years.
These estimates are based on laboratory tests, and some environmentalists believe that in an actual landfill, where sun and air are in brusque supply, the biodegradable diaper volition not represent a keen improvement.
''We believe biodegradable diapers are a snare and a delusion,'' said Diana Blair, executive director of the environmentalist group Federated Conservationists of Westchester. ''Most landfills are anaerobic, and studies have been done that show that truly biodegradable items like newspapers are establish years afterward, completely intact.''
Several Other Concerns
Biodegradable diapers as well practise non accost another business concern, that untreated human waste in a landfill poses a possibility of infectious material seeping into the soil and groundwater. Only the two major manufacturers of dispensable diapers, Procter & Run a risk (makers of Pampers and Luvs) and Kimberly-Clarke (Huggies), recommend that diapers be emptied earlier they are thown away.
Another business organisation near health hazards and disposable plastic diapers centers on the possible presence of dioxin in the product. To brand the diaper white, too every bit more absorptive, the paper manufacturing procedure uses chlorine to bleach wood lurid, creating trace amounts of dioxin in the paper itself, said Jeffrey Tryens, associate director of the National Center for Policy Alternatives, which recently completed a report on dispensable diapers.
''The issue has been raised nearly the possible transmission of dioxin from the newspaper to the infant'due south skin,'' he said.
A related potential hazard is that every bit landfills become full, more plastic diapers will be incinerated and the toxic dioxin becomes airborne.
Policy in Hospitals
Most parents are introduced to disposable diapers in the hospital. When the new mother and baby are discharged, they are often sent dwelling house with gratis samples of disposable diapers and disbelieve coupons for major brands. Mr. Mogavero said he had been approached by some hospitals about a diaper service. But to date all Westchester hospitals are using disposables.
''We don't use cloth and nosotros are not looking into a change at this time,'' said Laura Bowes, a spokeswoman for White Plains Hospital, echoing the response at other local hospitals. Diapering alternatives may be included in some local Lamaze classes, however.
''We are commencement to talk to patients about cloth diapers,'' said Rena Snyder, nursing director of Maternal and Infant Health at Phelps Memorial Hospital in North Tarrytown. ''We would like to become it going in parenting classes. Merely having the hospital switch is another issue.''
Some day-care centers refuse to accept children who use cloth diapers. And certain social service agencies reimburse parents for purchasing disposable diapers simply non cotton wool ones.
The latter particularly rankles environmentalists, as cotton wool diapers, fifty-fifty when used with a diaper service, are cheaper than plastic. In his study, ''Diapers in the Waste Stream,'' the recycling consultant Carl Lehrburger said the price of a diaper washed at home was 3 cents, although the figure increased to 16 cents when domestic labor was factored in at $6 an hr. The cost of using cotton diapers with a diaper service was 15 cents a diaper, compared with 22 cents for each unmarried-apply diaper, he added.
The actual cost to the consumer can vary with the number of diapers used, disbelieve coupons and special sales. The electric current accuse by General Diaper Service is $xv.45 a week for 90 diapers. At the Mount Kisco Grand Union recently, a pack of 88 Medium SuperTrim Huggies was $20.99; a pack of 87 Ultra Pampers Plus was also $twenty.99. On average, a infant uses more textile diapers than disposable, because the plastic ones have a super-absorbent gel to agree wetness.
In an attempt to respond to environmental concerns, Procter & Gamble, the largest manufacturer of disposable diapers has instituted a pilot diaper-recycling program in which diapers from i,000 households are collected and taken to a special recycling centre. At that place the diapers get into water-filled agitators that separate the homo waste, the newspaper and the absorbent gel. The waste material and h2o go into the sewer system, the paper volition be recycled into paper-thin, the gel used equally nursery soil and the plastic sold to companies that make benches, planters and the like.
Legislators Take a Look
Legislators have recently joined the fray. In Albany, legislation in the Consumer Protection Committee would require all boxes of disposable diapers sold in the state after 1991 to take a label that says:
''Disposable diapers may have over 100 years to degrade in a landfill. This production has significant environmental impacts and may pose problems in the disposal. Disposable diapers are used once and discarded. This product volition create meaning disposal costs to your community if used regularly. Yous may wish to consider alternative products that have less impact on the environment.''
Source: https://www.nytimes.com/1990/05/06/nyregion/the-diaper-service-is-making-a-comeback.html
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