To not understand common attitudes to disposable personal hygiene products?

[hooochycoo]

I'm confronted by this again and again on MN, and I confess I don't understand why it's OK to justify using disposable nappies, wet wipes, sanitary protection etc? Why is it OK to add so much rubbish to the world on the justification of convenience when there are alternatives that are still easy but generate less or no waste? Use a flannel, use a moon up, put/hold your baby regularly over a toilet/ potty, use modern easy quick drying cloth nappies. Why's it OK to recoil in horror at the hippyness of such things? But it's ok to continue buying disposable rubbish from huge corporations and throw them into landfill? Apart from an argument of "each to their own", aibu to not get it?

Dogs don't have to eat beef/cattle. Ours might get a steak as a special treat occasionally, but their everyday food is fish and poultry-based. Dogs can be quite efficient meat-eaters anyway, as they enjoy the bones and offal and all the generally horrible bits that people don't like to eat.

Also the humans in our household don't eat any meat (or fish or poultry) so I guess it balances out well enough in the end. They're rescue dogs too, so if we didn't have them, someone else would (or else they'd have been put to sleep, but I'm not sure we want to start making the argument that it's better to be dead than having an environmental impact).

I would imagine having kids is considerable 'worse' for the environment than having dogs, though there's really not much to be gained for making this into some kind of competition.

Dogs have more impact than SUVs says one study.

I imagine owning a few cats is potentially worse than owning one medium dog, being exclusive meat eaters and longer-lived.

Agree that making it into a competition is pointless, though.

It's not about making it into a competition though. It's just interesting IMO to question the issue of environmental ethics as a whole. The point about mentioning owning a dog, eating meat, using disposables, frequent flying.... Is that each is an example of something that we do that is often not essential and has an environmental impact. The entire thread Is based around dismissal of the offering of convenience or personal choice as an"excuse" for using disposable sanitary products.
I think that personal choice and convenience are valid reasons for using disposable products.

So, If it's not "ok" to use disposable products then why is it "ok" to do any of those things that are non essential and have an environmental impact?
And do we really have any duty to be environmentally "responsible"?

Amanda, your last question - why wouldn't you? I mean really? I'm perplexed by the question.

No I was actually interested in elimination communication. I even tried it for a bit to see if I could tell...but not at all. She has never cared/noticed if her nappy needs changing either....so she doesn't even know when its happened let alone before. DD didn't have regular feeds either or a sleep pattern as such. In fact she naps randomly and actually eats when she wants to rather than meal times.

On the basis that she still doesn't appear to know when she needs the loo I don't think we will be potty training any time soon either.

As guess as with all aspects of babies/toddlers they are all very different.

The OP does not eat meat , drive , or fly anywhere.

She claims that people who disagree with her are uneducated, lazy, and selfish.

I can't wait to go to the pub with her....

Oh dear, this thread has been an eye opener.

I used disposables - didn't even consider anything else.
I used baby wipes.

I use tampons and towels
I use toilet paper and moist wipes
I use a tumble dryer most days - can't remember the last time I hung washing out.
I use wipes for almost all my cleaning
I fly on holidays
We are a 2 car family

Am I going to hell?

(I do avoid Nestle though)

Excellent paraphrasing Caroline! Thanks for that. Interesting that not eating meat, flying or driving make me poor company. I'm not sure I'm interested in going to the pub with you either if you're only interested in talking about meat, planes and cars. You sound like Jeremy Clarkson. :-)

The people who said they couldn't be arsed are lazy. The people who admit they know nothing of the alternatives but dismiss them are uneducated. And surely making waste because you can't be bothered not to is selfish.

I've already said that I understand now that some people make their choices based on medical, social or financial conditions, or try their best and find alternatives don't work. Fair enough!

I doubt you're going to hell! What this thread has taught me is that maybe you're really really good at not using carrier bags, have never had a pet, campaign to reduce industrial waste and are planning to kill your entire family when their environmental impacts tips too far, so you've made your choices and it all balances out fine !

Nah, being rude makes people poor company.

PS I recycle like a very well educated bandit.

Ah.

Hell it is then.

I have a dog (and other small furries). I'll have more dogs in the future.
I don't own any bags for life (I do reuse carriers as bin bags though)

Only got one kid mind, surely that's a plus?

Eve, that'll mean you'll go to purgatory.
But come to the pub with us lot instead.
We can burn oil cans on the back garden and kill baby pandas for fun. With a 4x4.

Hester personally I try to put some limits on my environmental impact. I feel I should. But i'mnot convinced we all are obligated to do so. And everyone's circumstances are different, very different, so it's hard to apply comparable sets of expectations about everyone's conduct in this area.
I think it's a fair (ish) question.

I'm so rude rude rude! If I was any ruder I'd be ruder than ruddy mc rude, the winner of last year's mister rude man competition! It's a real eye opener to realise how rude I am!

Well, yes you are. Nobody is disputing that.

I think it's all very well to have disposable nappies etc but the problem for most people is that their houses are too small to cope with hand washing such things. You really need a proper laundry room with a deep sink to tackle such things.

Most of us have kitchen sinks and that's it. Not really practical at all.

Also, I recycle and do all that but I get so disillusioned by the fact that huge economies such as pretty much the entire Middle East don't even bother and I wonder myself, what's the point?

Yeah what's the point. Fuck it, let's not bother atall.

It is totally ridiculous to suggest that making a vast amount of extra waste is 'none of anyone else's business.'

I HATE the way DH changes dirty nappies. There is the nappy itself but he also uses about 10 cotton wool squares and 6 sheets of kitchen towel. We couldn't operate a nappy bin because it got full so fast....

Unfortunately he suffers some MH issues and would be completely incapable of using a flannel or something instead.

I used to use disposable nappies and pads because it was cheaper for me at the time to use them. I live on an extremely tight budget and have to sit down and budget every week, when I had an allergic reaction to always pads (never happened before) I had to save up for my mooncup, yep you heard me, I had to save up the leftover pennies for three weeks to get my mooncup, and yeah it was probably the best thing I have ever purchased for myself and I have recommended it, but it was inconvenient for me to have to save and thank god I didn't have a period before I had enough to buy it.

I think the comment about people who oppose her opinion being arrogant is a bit out of order. When you are living pretty much day to day on nothing, its hard to find the money for re-usable stuff and is also more difficult to jiggle round your finances to accommodate such products when there is conveniently cheaper and pre-packaged alternatives on the shelves. I don't completely condone it but hey, each to their own, i can see why people prefer either options, there are pros and cons for both. I just think OP is stirring the pot... just a little bit.

Yescutitup I agree about sometimes wondering if it's worth it when most ppl don't do it IYSWIM.

Recycling can triple your chucking -stuff -away time and use a lot of kitchen space: box for glass/ plastic/paper/ foil/ compost bin.

Well you changed your mind pretty fast Hooochycoo

Bugger! I'm going to have cancel my night out, as I don't eat meat, drive or fly. I can't believe I forgot about that!

Fortunately, I have a fall-back for you to go to the pub with, Caroline, to make up for my short-notice cancellation: Bruce Dickinson, lead singer with Iron Maiden. Not only does he use planes, he worked as a professional pilot for years.

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You had me up until the bit about holding a baby over the toilet! Seriously!

Please could i ask of the non -flyers; With the not - flying. Is that a "not done it yet" thing or a conscious decision? I mean, would you plan a trip in or through europe via eurostar/ ferry or a Caribbean cruise rather than fly to BVI in order to avoid the environmental impact of taking flights?
Or do you not fly because of a fear of flying? Or just that the opportunity, for whatever reason, has not been afforded you to get on a plane?
A little OT, I know, but it interests me.