Plastic threatened again, in the news

[Belarin]

If plastic was banned, that would be the end of the disposable diaper. Everybody would have to go back to cloth and plastic pants.

I don't think there would ever be a complete ban on plastic it would be the end of a huge number of things, plastic is used for so much nowadays.

What is more likely is a ban/reduction on disposable plastic products, this would affect nappies but they may also be exempt (at least for cloth like backing since although there is still plastic it is thinner) purely due to the inconvenience and problems it would cause.

I can't see plastic backed nappies going away any time soon. As others have said, even the cloth backed disposables are still composed of plastic. It just wouldn't be workable without a viable replacement. Sectors like health and care simply would not be able to manage without such a core product. Then there's the fact that disposables will have a market and as long as a company can make a profit on them, you can be pretty certain they'll be available. Maybe there'll be some added environmental taxes but in all honesty I think the disposable nappy with all the plastic parts within it is here to stay.

There is actually a bunch of research being carried out by proctor and gamble and others into more natural, renewable, biodegradable and environmentally friendly materials, there are baby nappies available on the market that use a plant cellulose rather than plastic for waterproofing, its not quite as effective yet but is in the works. The bigger problem there is the use of SAP in nappies and finding a suitable alternative to that is not going well so far.

 

[dogboy]

Plastic pants get washed and reused until they crack. When properly cared for, they last for months.

They do but I'm sure the plastic is a lot thicker than disposable diaper plastic. I was thinking in terms of pounds ( or Kgs) and I was simply guessing that they might even out. In addition, because plastic pant's plastic is significantly thicker than the plastic in disposable diapers, I would think it would take many more years to biodegrade. Given that, it might even out though I'm only guessing here as I'm not a scientist.

 

[PadPhilosopher]

To echo what others have said, "cloth backed" still has a plastic shell with just a thin cloth outer layer over it.

This is true for many, but not all. But what is true is that even the ones which don't have the plastic sheet are using synthetic (plastic) cloth.

 

[Angelapinks]

Maybe if they start to faze out plastic diaper coverings they will bring back real rubber pants at a decent cost and make them available at more outlets and mail order places.

 

[Incontinent2]

I feel using cloth diapers would definitely cut down on plastic use. Good quality diaper covers last for quite a while provided you don't get lotion or cream on them. Being incontinent I wear cloth whenever possible to cut down on expense. When I use disposable diapers I use the higher absorbent ABDL diapers with a booster because I'm not able to change at work. Now with that being said if the medical diaper companies would increase the absorbency of their disposable diapers there would be a decrease in plastic use due to fewer changes. This is just my opinion.

 

[CptKirk]

My take on this is that plastic bags SHOULD go. When I was a kid, everything came in a paper bag. OK, they didn't have convenient handles, but they almost never exploded as you were carrying your groceries from the car to the house, either. Same thing goes with plastic bottle.

When I was younger (JESUS this seems like it was NOT "that" long ago!!!) you paid an extra nickel for a bottle of Coke (using Coke as an example) and got that $.05 cents back when you returned the empty. As a kid whose family sure as shit did NOT have a lot of extra money those empties on the street, along side of the train tracks etc. bought me a LOT of drinks and candy! There'd be myself, my brother, my best friend and often as many as 4-6 others and we'd be playing football (every day, year round through our early teens) and we'd continually collect empties as that would buy everyone a drink after playing. For YEARS the empty bottles were washed and refilled. I don't know why this ever ended, aside from the dealing with a large amount of empty bottles. I used to CRINGE when older kids in the neighborhood would be out smashing bottles off of the train tracks as that was money to a lot of us!

I doubt you'd see too much happen to diapers though. Compared to all of the GARBAGE plastic out there, the percentage from disposable diapers HAS TO BE miniscule. Look at a single chain, Wal-Mart. They have to disperse thousands of tons of those useless bags each and every single day and that's just ONE chain store. Then there are the single use plastic drink bottles and again, compared to the volume of bottles alone diapers can't make up a major percentage.

I HATE plastic bags for shopping mostly as I can't tell you how many times I've had my groceries rolling all over the parking lot, down my driveway and giving out at the seemingly most inopportune time.

Then there's beer. No, beer doesn't come in plastic bottles that I'm aware of or at least none of the beer I drink does (THANK GOD!) but there is something to be said for cracking open an ice cold bottle of beer on a hot ass day! Canned beer does NOT do the same thing for me. WHY? Damned if I know! Some people swear they can taste the difference but I've poured the same beer out of cans and bottles, put them in glasses and asked them to tell me which was which and no one ever had a clue and were often wrong. Still, I don't want my beer in a can and definitely NOT a F****** plastic bottle!

One eye opener is to see documentaries on other parts of the world. I am not naming the specific country I have in mind as I don't live there and know little about it, but the visible TRASH, EVERYWHERE is an eyesore! I mean, I've seen waterways in this country with people bathing, swimming, doing laundry etc. that have almost as much shit floating down the waterway as there is water. I'm a slob by nature, but DAMN! I could NEVER live like that and be happy about it.

With that being said I am NOT a big "green" guy. Yes, I am all for nature and no garbage, but electric cars in no way are cleaner than gasoline cars once you factor in the mining, energy production etc. as you're only moving the pollution, not reducing or eliminating it. Add into that the fact that the batteries may as well be gold plated and only last 1/3 as long as any vehicle I've ever owned (my current ride is a 2004 with 240k on it, and it is mechanically good to go for another 240k) yet cost a lot more to own and operate.

I would like to see plastic bags, bottles etc. go the way of the dinosaur though.

Just my thoughts.

CptKirk

 

[MikeDJ]

So if they ban plastic diapers why then does it stop there. Nowadays you still see so much plastic packaging in just about everything. So many "so called" recyclable plastic containers apparently arent so recyclable either. It seems that it isnt just diapers that are made with plastic these days . All these pull ups and so called "clothlike" diapers are still loaded with it. As it is the ABDL plastic backed diapers are always called a niche market and dont make up the large market of diaper users.I think the focus is more on mainstream BAby and adult diapers which in reality are all the so called clothlike ones but are essentially still loaded with plastic. They would need to ban quite a bit of plastic used in todays society in so many different aspects to really make a true impact on the environment.

 

[PadPhilosopher]

Personally I resent the constant manipulation of people's lives in the name of "the environment." We're not children.

 

[mantilla]

The term plastic is misleading here. We say plastic diapers to distinguish them from cotton feel disposable diapers. But even the cotton feel backsheet fabric is made from polypropylene or polyethylene I think (I'm not an expert though - I might be wrong).

Aside from the backsheet, the most material in a disposable diaper is anyway the superabsorbant polymers and fluff pulp.

Would be nice to have biodegradable disposable diapers. Maybe even with "plastic backing feeling". There certainly are a lot of biodegradable materials that mimic the properties of plastic.

 

[jbond007]

Due to climate change caused by global warming, in which the production of plastics plays a significant role, we may be headed back to reusable diapers and some kind of recyclable plastic like TPU instead of PVC/vinyl. We may soon reach a point where we cannot simply keep dumping disposable diapers into the Earth.

 

[nikthewerelion]

there’s absolutely no way that getting rid of plastics to that degree is actually realistic and in any kind of timeframe anytime soon. The world society is so dependent on plastics in such a huge fucking way that it would ruin a lot of things very quickly. Because like a lot of people said, there is no replacement. It’s plastic and we are stuck with it. Besides diapers think of how many other aspects use plastic in our lives. Besides Diapers and single use plastic bags. Let’s be honest those single youth plastic bags bands have not been a success. I know from personal experience. I work at a grocery store in 80% of the people don’t bring in their reasonable bags. So , yes those reusable bags are a hell of a lot more plastic and is actually made plastic consumption go up not down. The amount of food packaging, including drinks that use plastic that’s unrealistic to change anytime soon. The amount of plastic in medical equipment that would destroy the medical industry. i’m not just talking about Diapers but think about the things that are considered disposable medical equipment like the stuff in CPAP machines, which I do use the mask and tubing is all plastic and it’s meant to be thrown away. The amount of plastic that’s in your car or truck . There’s so many other ways in which are society is dependent on plastic that there’s just absolutely no way. It’s actually gonna happen anytime soon. Unless there is some magical fucking replacement out of a sci-fi movie that’s been developed in the next like 20 years or so I don’t see , the earth becoming more environmentally friendly anytime soon.

 

[Zeke]

I just viewed a YouTube video short about this replacement for masonry products. It’s comprised primarily of ground, recycled plastic that’s then heated and emulsified with a small amount of cement added. They make building blocks which lock together much like Legos and are 3 times stronger than the brick they replace. This looks like it has the potential to greatly reduce, or eliminate the plastic waste problem.

 

[CptKirk]

I just viewed a YouTube video short about this replacement for masonry products. It’s comprised primarily of ground, recycled plastic that’s then heated and emulsified with a small amount of cement added. They make building blocks which lock together much like Legos and are 3 times stronger than the brick they replace. This looks like it has the potential to greatly reduce, or eliminate the plastic waste problem.

I saw that a month or so ago Zeke and I found it to be interesting also. Not that I'm very sensitive environmentally (@PadPhilosopher stated it best a few responses ago) but I am all for stuff like this. I can't understand why more items aren't recycled and converted to actual usage personally. I imagined ground up tires mixed in for road materials years ago and was told it can't work, but never given an explanation on why. I know I've read about the used tire rubber causing cancer (tires that were ground up for playground flooring usage) which made little sense to me as what difference could it POSSIBLY make if the rubber was used or not (unless I misunderstood exactly what they're blaming for the cancers) but yeah... saw that video online and it's interesting.

 

[PadPhilosopher]

I saw that a month or so ago Zeke and I found it to be interesting also. Not that I'm very sensitive environmentally (@PadPhilosopher stated it best a few responses ago) but I am all for stuff like this. I can't understand why more items aren't recycled and converted to actual usage personally. I imagined ground up tires mixed in for road materials years ago and was told it can't work, but never given an explanation on why. I know I've read about the used tire rubber causing cancer (tires that were ground up for playground flooring usage) which made little sense to me as what difference could it POSSIBLY make if the rubber was used or not (unless I misunderstood exactly what they're blaming for the cancers) but yeah... saw that video online and it's interesting.

Tire rubber tends to have semi-volatile petroleum compounds in it which slowly evaporate. This evaporation leads to the eventual deterioration of the rubber and end of its useful life. Generally it happens slowly enough that the off gassing is not an issue. I can see where shredding them, increasing the surface area tremendously, then spreading them out flat in the hot sun over a large area, could raise the airborne concentration in the immediate area to a concerning level.

Mixing tires into roads I'm pretty sure has been done. Plastics in building materials is becoming more common, too, and if it's reclaimed, it provides another recycling avenue. I have nothing against finding uses for things instead of burying them; I'm all for that. It's just good utilization of resources, and sometimes makes tremendous economic sense. It's mandates and manipulation that make me crazy.

 

[CptKirk]

Tire rubber tends to have semi-volatile petroleum compounds in it which slowly evaporate. This evaporation leads to the eventual deterioration of the rubber and end of its useful life. Generally it happens slowly enough that the off gassing is not an issue. I can see where shredding them, increasing the surface area tremendously, then spreading them out flat in the hot sun over a large area, could raise the airborne concentration in the immediate area to a concerning level.

Mixing tires into roads I'm pretty sure has been done. Plastics in building materials is becoming more common, too, and if it's reclaimed, it provides another recycling avenue. I have nothing against finding uses for things instead of burying them; I'm all for that. It's just good utilization of resources, and sometimes makes tremendous economic sense. It's mandates and manipulation that make me crazy.

I have several friends who are engineers for PennDOT and they claim that they can't use recycled/ground up tires for roadways though I have never received a good enough response to satisfy the "why" aspect.

 

[PadPhilosopher]

I have several friends who are engineers for PennDOT and they claim that they can't use recycled/ground up tires for roadways though I have never received a good enough response to satisfy the "why" aspect.

There may well be something with their process that makes it impractical. I can also see where adding too much compressibility could make things wear worse, but a certain amount might make it less prone to cracking. It's hard to say. I know it's been tried, but I don't know if it's been done on a wide scale anywhere.

 

[Zeke]

I saw that a month or so ago Zeke and I found it to be interesting also. Not that I'm very sensitive environmentally (@PadPhilosopher stated it best a few responses ago) but I am all for stuff like this. I can't understand why more items aren't recycled and converted to actual usage personally. I imagined ground up tires mixed in for road materials years ago and was told it can't work, but never given an explanation on why. I know I've read about the used tire rubber causing cancer (tires that were ground up for playground flooring usage) which made little sense to me as what difference could it POSSIBLY make if the rubber was used or not (unless I misunderstood exactly what they're blaming for the cancers) but yeah... saw that video online and it's interesting.

My dad’s boss, and a couple of his friends, opened a company that cut tires into strips and spacers and they wove them into mats for workspaces where a lot of standing was required. But that was back in the ‘60s before steel belted radials. I have no problem saving the planet when it has even a whiff of rationality but so much of what’s being demanded in the name of environmentalism has no rational and/or economic basis. Something like these blocks, if the processing isn’t cost prohibitive, makes sense.