Disposable vs. reusable diapers, Sudbury business wants you to choose cloth

Encouraging people to choose cloth diapers Sudbury based diaper project has kept over 35,000 disposable diapers out of landfill sites. Jessica Gosselin reports.

Should parents with newborns use disposable diapers or reusable cloth diapers?

There are arguments on both sides; such as, convenience versus environmental benefits

For Marissa Arnold, the decision to switch to cloth diapers was an easy one to make.

Her son, Hendricks, was having a reaction to the disposable ones.

"We started using disposables when he was a newborn because he was a little bit too small for the cloth and within the week he had a couple of diaper rashes, so we were really excited to get onboard as soon as he was big enough," she explained.

Arnold said she also likes the fact her decision isn't just helping her son; it's also helping the environment.

"We have, maybe, one bag of garbage every two weeks," she said.

"When we were using the disposable for the first couple of weeks, it was insane the amount of garbage."

Kayla Pelland runs 'The Diaper Project'.

It's a cloth diaper rental service which provides parents with a number of diaper options that are picked up for cleaning then dropped back off twice a week.

"When we first launched the business, the city was just going down to the two bags of garbage, so we really worked hand-in-hand with people who were starting to panic," said Pelland.

"At the same time we did meet with the city as well and set up a rebate through the city, so anybody using cloth diapers can apply through the city for a one time rebate of $100."

Pelland said since her company's inception about two years ago she's eliminated around 35,000 disposable diapers from the local landfill

"The average baby gets changed between six to eight times a day and that's how we run our estimates about how many diapers we've kept out of the landfills," she said.

While Pelland's company doesn't currently make the diapers, she is looking to expand in the near future with a cloth diaper friendly clothing line.