Disposable vs Reusable - 1 year of baby wipes

Welcome to The Waste-Free Homes first infographic! The idea for these came during a deep conversation with my dad around why I think reusable products are an important part of lowering the waste we all create, and whilst agreed, he challenged me hard on how people will look at the cost of my product and not the fact that they are cheaper in the long run, better for the planet, ethically made and people are paid a fair wage to create. And he was right, so, my solution was to create an easy to read graphic, and voila.

The cost alone is enough to make your eyes water but I couldn’t help but show the waste these wipes create also.

With an average of 1 pack per week for 1 baby (this would be more if you use wipes for messy hands and faces too) and each pack containing 60 wipes, this creates 3120 wipes in total that can only go to landfill*. Instead, I recommend using 3 packs of The Waste-Free Home reusable wipes (1 x Terry and 2 x Muslin) instead of disposable ones. These 3 packs will last longer than just 1 year, with proper washing and care they should last a lifetime. 1 reusable wipe is thicker and larger than a disposable wipe so you can use just one ­­to clean up messes that would generally take 3-6 disposables. And once they have had their time as baby wipes, they can be used as gloriously soft rags!

View our blog for how to make nourishing wet wipes.

*Figures and pack details are based on my personal experience using disposable wipes with my first babe and reusables with the second. Each disposable pack costs an average of $7.