Saturday, April 23, 2011

Calling B.S. on a talking point

Some busybodies want you to feel guilty for using disposable diapers, so they organized this publicity stunt.
Dirty diapers can be a mess not only for parents, but also for landfills — a problem participants brought awareness to by setting a Guinness World Record on Saturday for the most cloth diapers changed at the same time.

The Great Cloth Diaper Change 2011, organized by a group of cloth diaper enthusiasts, had 400 sites across 24 countries help set the record. San Antonio supported the cause with 73 baby/parent pairs participating.

Using cloth diapers instead of disposables is better for the environment, safer for babies and cheaper, said Kim Webb, the committee chair for the San Antonio site, held at a La Quinta Inn & Suites.
(from the Express-News)

But the main reason I bring this up is not to give them publicity (which I most definitely have, I admit) but to draw attention to this little talking point.
“It can take hundreds of years for diapers to decompose in a landfill,” Webb said.
Really? How does she know?

I'm not being sarcastic, I really want to know how anyone can determine that it will take hundreds of years for an item to decompose when that item hasn't even been in existence for one hundred years. My complaint may sound silly, but I find claims like this to be flippant, as in frivolously disrespectful and shallow. Every time I hear something like this -- and it's always from an environmentalist that wants me to change the way I live my life -- my bullshit meter shoots to the red. I can't help thinking they are throwing out an arbitrary number to scare anyone in earshot because they don't think they can win the debate by the merits of their arguments alone. Why else would they use such a tactic?

Hundreds of years in a landfill before a diaper breaks down? Bullshit. Five hundred years for a styrofoam cup? Bullshit. One thousand years for a plastic bag? Absolute bullshit! (Take note, City Council.)

Don't get me wrong, I'm all for reducing waste where practical and for generally not dirtying up the air we breathe or the water we drink. But let's be reasonable, and let's propose new ways of reducing pollution and disposing of trash without resorting to crap statistics that cannot be proven or disproven for another couple of centuries.

(Crossposted at Painted Ocean.)

5 comments:

Sabra said...

Actually, in modern landfills everything will most likely take centuries to degrade; my understanding (and I could be wrong) is that they are shut down so tightly in order to prevent any possibility of environmental damage that the usual bacteria that would break things down have no way to get in.

I almost went to this, because it sounded like a bit of lighthearted fun; I didn't realize that there was a hidden message (and judging by the talk of people who planned to go, neither did a lot of other women). I'm glad I skipped it.

I use cloth diapers mainly because they're cheap, & I figure they probably feel better to the baby. Marie's the first kid I've not used disposables with. In the process of researching cloth diapers, I have come to find that most of the women who use them are farking insane. And I'm pretty sure that multiple wash/rinse cycles in hot water aren't exactly kind to the environment either.

Albatross said...

Actually, in modern landfills everything will most likely take centuries to degrade; my understanding (and I could be wrong) is that they are shut down so tightly in order to prevent any possibility of environmental damage that the usual bacteria that would break things down have no way to get in.

I suspect you're right, Sabra. In that case, if some nut accosts me for using a Styrofoam cup for my coffee by saying, "That will take hundreds of years to decompose in the landfill!", I'll say, "Thank God for good solid waste management!"

mick129 said...

"Really? How does she know?"

The "Absolute bullshit!" link to Slate describes how the estimates are made. These are very rough estimates. I don't think anyone is suggesting it'll take exactly 500 years, just somewhere on that order of magnitude.

On the other hand, that's assuming we don't find any waste management breakthroughs in the next few centuries. They might take only a few months to decompose if eaten by oyster mushrooms.

Albatross said...

That link to Slate says the respirometry tests work well for organic items, but the same test reveals nothing for plastic bags. The only thing the scientists have to go on is ultraviolet radiation, which will degrade a bag, eventually. But they have no idea how long that will take. So they make up really big numbers just to be on the safe side.

That's fine if you are a scientist and know that these estimates could change as more knowledge is gathered. It's not fine if you use these numbers to enact policy changes that affect how others live their lives.

East Of The Pecos said...

500 years in a landfill or about 3 weeks laying out in the South Texas sun.