It's good to be the go-to guy for something, I guess. That's what I told myself when DT readers Eric and dad-to-be-any-friggin-minute-now Chris sent near-simultaneous tips about The Nature Nappy, a biodegradable disposable diaper which its inventor promises will break down completely in only six months.
[As you already know, and as your cloth-shoe-wearing friends keep reminding you, regular disposable diapers remain in landfills forever; until these magic disintegrating diapers came along, the only hope for avoiding the coming diaper-pocalypse was Elimination Communication or The Rapture.]
Anyway, reading over the site for Nature Nappies, color me underwhelmed. I'm awaiting answers from the company itself, but it appears they're just shopping around for a manufacturer to license their technique/technology/design for either a diaper core or an entire diaper. And the inventor herself, Charishma Seneviratne, became a textile designer after swallowing a pin at the age of 2 [!], and depending on which bio you read, is either studying for or has completed her PhD in diaper recycling, and has written three books about the subject. [Alas, titles and Amazon rankings are not mentioned.]
Until I find out more, anyone wanting a Nature Nappy can buy one--from Denmark. Turns out the Danish diaper manufacturer Abena has been selling diapers under the Bambo Nature brand name for several years which are environmentally friendly, but don't necessarily promise to evaporate as soon as they hit the landfill. In the mean time, don't you have a compost pile to start?
Biodegradable Diapers [gizmodo, thanks, Chris and Eric]
SeNevens corporate site and 10/04 Western Austr. gov't promo [which says they're reusable? huh?]
Bambo Nature Nappies by Abena (DK) are available from TheNappyLady [damn, there goes my lock on the whole "nappy go-to guy" thing]
We've discovered that swim diapers can be reused almost indefinitely (washed in the machine and hung to dry), so I don't doubt that these new ones could be, too. AND they're biodegradable? Wow.
Hey, regular diposable diapers biodegrade in about 20 years anways so by the time the kids finish college, their diaper debt to society has been paid. Seems fair to me.
Even better, a compostable diaper service exists that will actually compost these biodegradable diapers for you so that you don't have to worry about them sitting in a landfill taking up space.
http://www.thechicecologist.com/2008/12/eco-baby-care-earth-baby-compostable-diaper-service/