[greekrich92]

Great read. Being an engineer in the mid 20th century must have been fun and satisfying.

We pay for a diaper service. The price is comparable to disposables. The population density where I live helps with the price I'm sure.

[fsckboy]

it is recommended (search, you'll see) that at home you don't wash your underwear with your other clothes because there is a nonnegligible amount of fecal matter and associated bacteria remaining after washing.

extending that notion to nappies being community washed in large vats (separated by mesh bags and kept separable?) is horrifying. I suppose they put in some chlorine bleach to sterilize? Still, chlorine bleach might whiten the masticated corn kernels but...

[xyzzy_plugh]

I think your imagination is much worse than reality. While your home laundry is arguably questionable (a lot of the sterilization occurs in the drier!) industrial laundry is a different ballgame altogether. How do you think hospital bedding gets cleaned? Most if not all industrial laundromats do regular testing of cleaned items to test for bacteria, organic matter, etc.

A nappy service is very likely to do a much better job than you'd do at home.

[fsckboy]

>I think your imagination is much worse than reality

you are imagining that my imagination is worse, i am very realistic. I'm not worried about these things at all, not a germaphobe, I always assume humans have been exchanging fecal traces on the daily for a million years and there's no escaping it.

but imagination is necessary to develop hypotheses for testing, and what I said about home laundry separation is true. in the home laundry arena underwear < clothes, and obviously diapers < underwear < clothes. so in the institutional setting you mention, diapers < underwear < bed linens < clothes. don't confuse me with your confusion.

[nmbrskeptix]

They're bleached