Written by Naz Haider | Updated : May 25, 2017 10:10 AM IST
Your newborn probably generates waste more than your entire family does. Newborns need a lot things, which are majorly disposables. So needless to say, their carbon footprint is high. Without even getting fancy, simply with the basic necessities that babies need, they heavily contribute to pollution and waste. Find out how.
Pacifiers, or binkys, are a parent's saviour. It keeps the children quiet and parents sane. However, a pacifier is out and out plastic, and a child who uses binkys goes through anywhere between 10-20 binkys till the age of 2. What you can do is, unless extremely necessary, don't give your child a binky. A lot of children do without it, and it will save you the effort of getting your child off it.
I am sure your baby has her own set of hairbrush, comb, toiletaries, and her own bag or caddy to hold it all. You know what it is all? Plastic, plastic, plastic. What you can do is buy big bottles of toiletries that will last you a long time, and also save excess trash.
Step into a home with a child and you are bound to step on at least one of the gazillion toys that the child owns. Plastic toys not just pollute, but are also harmful for children who tend to chew on it. What you can do is get wooden or cloth toys, and if they are recycled, even better.
As a new parent, you will be going through a lot of laundry. Even little babies can dirty their clothes. There are spills, spit ups, nappy explosions. But every time you run a cycle of laundry, you are using water, and generating waste water. What you can do is rinse in less water, and not wash clothes that aren't really dirty.
Like mentioned in the previous slide, newborns and even older babies have way too many clothes. And since your baby won't be wearing a particular size for more than a month or 2, why spend so much on clothes. What you can do is limit the number of clothes, use hand-me-downs and even recycle your baby's clothes for other babies.
The biggest culprit for pollution is, hands down, diapers. A child use about 8-10 diapers a day, more for newborns. That's roughly 250-300 diapers a months! These all go in landfills, aren't biodegradable and contain a whole lot of chemicals. Just two words here - cloth diapers.
As a new mum, you swear by baby wipes. Not just a poopy booty, wet wipes are used for just about everything. From cleaning boogers to wiping furniture and baby's toys, people use wet wipes freely. And dispose it freely. What you can do is use muslin cloth for wiping your baby's butt and use dusters for cleaning furniture.
A lot of babies use plastic feeding bottles, to drink formula or expressed milk. What you can do is breastfeed for as long as possible. If not, use glass or steel feeding bottles, which are way safer than plastic ones.
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