Debunking Seventh Generation's "Big Green Lies"

As environmentalists, we look at companies like 7th generations with admiration, right? While we have tried to cut down on paper towel use, or gotten rid of the need altogether, have contemplated family cloth, stopped using harsh chemical cleaners, clothes and dish detergents and OF COURSE stopped using disposable diapers - we look at 7th generation as one of the best alternatives, the people that make the "greenest" versions of those things we try so hard not to use! Well......brace yourself - it appears that they are beginning to act like the "Big" business they are becoming.

In their new set of short shows called "Big Green Lies" - 7th Gen attempts to debunk typical green myths - most recently cloth vs. disposable. You can see the segment here. Way to try and over-simplify things, huh? Did they fail to realize that most of us wash our own diapers and that if you use additive free detergent you don't have to rinse the diapers over and over and over....and you certainly do not have to use bleach or even the clothes dryer for that matter if you like to use the clothesline. There are so many different factors that they completely ignore, yet being who they are and assuming the roll of "green authority" lots of people will just watch this and take it as the end all of answers.

Although their diapers are bleach free and lack many of the harmful chemicals that mainstream diapers contain, they didn't mention that when telling people to stop over-thinking the decision because it was 50/50. They also neglected to talk about how disposables can also lock in body heat, raising the temperature of the scrotum which is being studied as a contributing factor of male infertility.

What it really just boils down to for me and lots of other educated moms who have chosen cloth for their kids is this: In the US, 27.4 billion disposable diapers go into the landfill each year - these diapers are estimated to take between 250 and 500 YEARS to decompose...but we really don't know for sure, do we? There were no disposables diapers around 250 years ago, which means that ALL the disposables that have ever been made are STILL breaking down....somewhere in a huge pile of trash.

Shame on you Seventh Generation.