[sfpotter]

We kept the diapers from our diaper service and the covers. The washing machines used by the service are much beefier and can handle these kind of loads easily, and will generally be more water efficient.

We also got a good number of used diapers on Offer Up.

When we're done with our diapers, we will rehome them instead of throwing them out.

How does this change your calculations?

[sfpotter]

Oops, talked to my wife and realized I got a detail wrong: we did not keep the diapers from the service, we gave them back. And the diapers we got from the service were almost surely used by plenty of other people before.

Someone else on here seemed confused about the logistics off the service. We lived in Brooklyn at the time. A big truck would drive around our neighborhood and pick up and drop off diapers from many people throughout the neighborhood at once. More amortization at work.

Also, one more thing: we're big on line drying. We will primarily line dry these diapers instead of drying them in a machine.

Oh, and one MORE thing: we got our current washer and dryer free from a friend who was about to throw them out when replacing them.

There are so many ways to mitigate and reduce environmental impact beyond the simple-minded apples-to-apples comparison many in this thread seem to be doing.

[blks]

Sorry, does the truck picks up dirty diapers? Or what’s the point of the pickup? How do you package them for pick up?

[sfpotter]

The truck would come by once a week to pick up all of our dirty diapers and drop off a new set of clean diapers. The service provided a bucket with a cloth bag inside of it that had enough capacity for one kid for a week. Packaging up = closing the lid of the bucket and leaving it outside the door of our apartment. They would drop off a new one of these buckets full of clean diapers each week (visiting many other people at the same time). Beyond all the environmental benefits, living in the city this was actually super convenient.