An Endorsement That’s All Garbage

The beleaguered disposable diaper, so long cited by many environmentalists as the ultimate insult to the planet, finds friendly support in the October/November issue of Garbage magazine, no less.

Patricia Poore, editor and publisher of the “practical journal for the environment,” confesses that as a mom herself she has come around to the disposable side of the still-shrill argument.

The argument has been that disposable diapers and their plastic liners are symbolic of a throwaway society, filling our landfills.

But William Rathje of the University of Arizona argues in the issue that when all environmental factors in the life of a cloth or disposable diaper are added up, “the most striking fact overall . . . is how small the differences between the two diaper systems really are.”

Poore admits that she was prey to the anti-disposable rhetoric. “I hate to admit what a chicken I was,” she admits.