Here's Rachel's hack, which happens to describe exactly how I've used those newspaper bags for the last couple of years:
If your newspaper comes in a plastic bag to keep it dry, don’t throw it away. We save ours and use them to wrap up soiled clothes on the go, dirty diapers at home, and other kid messiness! For five years we’ve wrapped every dirty diaper in these bags; put it in, twist it tight, double the bag over again and tie it shut and it works as well – and cheaper – than a Diaper Genie. New parents always think that they need to buy special diaper containing gizmos – but you really don’t!
Amen.
Andi also suggested Press'n Seal as another diaper disposal alternative. Too expensive to use every day, but good in a pinch.
My Mom did the same with bread bags when she was a home care provider.
Even better are the thin crunchy bags from the supermarket – they open up nice and wide, and you can hang them off of a drawer knob to easily receive the diaper. But anything that cuts down on waste is good by me.
Like Maggie, we also use the plastic grocery bags and they work great. It is still probably less environmental than choosing paper at the check-out, but we have had no luck with our diaper genie and this solution has kept our house from becoming smelly.
We use plastic grocery bags too – we don’t get a newspaper though either ;).
ordinary grocery bags work pretty well, assuming the bottom isn’t ripped slightly. Most of them seem to come that way, so check carefully.
Thank you. I hate throwing those bags away and now I can feel a little better about it.
Also, I thought that “Amen” link was going to go to Anne Nahm’s “Curse of the Diaper Genie” for sure. 🙂
Great idea, but in Boston it would involve a subscription to the local Globe or the NYT.
Not happening in my lifetime, although poo in their bag is an appealing “right-back-at-you” idea 🙂
Yeah, then they can find today’s diapers ten thousand years from now instead of just five. I feel guilty every time I wrap a poopy in a plastic grocery bag. Dang :::hangs head:::
Amy: HA! I had forgotten about that! For those of you who may have missed it, here’s Anne’s hilarious Diaper Genie story (so funny it won her a book):
http://parenthacks.com/2006/08/share_your_funn.html#comment-20912960
If your plastic grocery bag has those little holes at the bottom, just tie a knot at that end of the bag. There will still be room for a diaper and you can make a second knot at the top to seal the stink in.
My youngest is (finally!) out of diapers, so I’m trying to come up with new uses for the grocery and newspaper bags. Our dog just doesn’t poop enough to use them all…time to get another dog? I’m sure not going to have another baby!
I use my plastic bags the same way and it amazes me that our family’s grocery input almost matches one child’s diaper output. How can that be? Too much fiber!
I remember putting my sock feet in those newspaper bags before putting on snow boots for an extra layer of dryness.
I thought you were supposed to empty the poop into the toilet????
The smell would be gone, and the landfills would not have human waste. Do you toss your own poop into your trash?
Extra plastic and human waste into the landfills. In one word “Convenience”.
In most areas, the plastic bags go in the landfills anyway because recycling programs won’t take them. Mine won’t, anyway.
About a year ago, the Walmart stores by me (I’m in SE Michigan) started offering collection of bags marked #2 for recycling, but only #2. Newspaper bags and Target store bags, among others, are #4, so they still end up in the landfill.
And the Walmart drop-off isn’t always the best solution when the closest one (to me, anyway) is a 35-minute drive, so if I use the bags for kitty litter or diapers, then I’m actually reducing the number of plastic kitchen garbage bags that I use.
I use 1 Gallon Plastic Bags that twist-tie, as they’re cheaper than zip-locks and more tidy than plastic grocery bags. I’ve chosen these as they’re only $2-$3 for a box of 75, the box sits nice and neat on the changing table and I’m not fighting the big bag of plastic grocery bags. I love them!
Re: Michael’s comment – does anyone really, I mean really scrape the poop from a disposable diaper into the toilet? Sometimes I’m about dry heaving on the smell. It’s all I can do to quickly tie the diaper up and seal it in a bag. My Diaper Champ got tossed months ago just from the smell. Plastic IS the answer! As for land-fills, I recycle everything else.
In the UK, we use thin, scented ‘nappy sacks’, they are very cheap and smell like baby powder. They are completely common place, and every parent I know keeps a supply in their bag.