If you have a baby, you have baby diapers or you have a big mess on your hands. That's just part of being a parent. If you're concerned about the environment, reconciling your need for diapers with your desire to live a greener lifestyle can be a real challenge, and those cloth diapers might not be the perfect solution you think they are.

Disposable Diapers
Disposables have rightly won the ire of environmental activists. Disposable diapers currently account for around 2% of all the solid waste in US landfills, and the plastics and polymers traditionally used in their construction won't biodegrade for about 500 years. Each year, approximately 18 billion disposable diapers get added to the trash pile.

Another concern is the human waste contained in those diapers. Flushable liners solve part of the problem, but some people remain concerned about the long-term impact of what's left behind in landfills. There are no studies on the long term impact, so the potential for danger is unknown.

Cloth Diapers
Long hailed as a green alternative to disposables, cloth diapers do take some toll on the environment. It is estimated that the manufacture of cloth diapers uses 50% more energy than the manufacture of a comparable number of disposables. Cloth diapers also require regular cleaning in hot water, something that disposables don't need. Whether you wash the diapers at home or use a service, water, electricity and fossil fuels all get consumed each time you clean them.

The biggest advantage to cloth diapers is that human waste winds up in sewage systems, where it can be safely processed. If you've got a solar-powered washing machine, you can eliminate the use of fossil fuels, although you'll still go through a lot of water. This is the greenest option, but it's not available to everyone.

The Search for a Greener Diaper
Growing consumer awareness of diapers' environmental impact is spawning a new generation of diapers and products. There are ways to make diapering greener, even if you don't have a solar-powered home.

gDiapers are the fully flushable disposables designed to have a minimal environmental impact. The diapers are made of materials that quickly decompose in water, allowing the waste to be treated in sewage plants.

Nature Boy and Girl diapers are made with cornstarch rather than plastics, which allows them to break down more quickly. However, this doesn't do much good in a landfill, since the degrading process needs air and bacteria, two things that are eliminated when rubbish is buried. On a positive note, Nature Boy and Girl, as well as Seventh Generation, don't use chlorine in their products, so there's one less chemical entering the atmosphere.

The search for a truly Earth-friendly diaper continues. Until a solution is found, you'll need to weigh your choices against the different environmental impacts of cloth and disposable diapers.