Two moms fill a need by getting to the bottom of cloth diapers

When Suzanne Voldman had her first son, she remembers thinking, “This just isn’t right” whenever she tossed a disposable diaper into the plastic bag receptacle of her Diaper Genie. So when the Yakima, Wash., resident was pregnant with her second son, she started investigating what it would take to use cloth diapers that can be laundered at home. “I had all kinds of false ideas about what it meant to use cloth diapers,” said Voldman, founder of Cutie Bondoonie Diaper Kits, a non-profit volunteer organization that educates on and provides homemade diapers to those in need. She discovered that cloth diapering requires a little more effort on her part, but was far from the horribly messy hassle she imagined and only costs roughly 1/10th that of disposables. In addition, she discovered just how much smaller the environmental impact is from cloth diapers compared to disposables. A whopping 27.4 billion disposable diapers are disposed of every year in the U.S., according to the Real Diaper Association’s website, making them the third largest item in landfills, after newspapers and food and beverage containers. Even if landfills provided ideal conditions for decomposition, as they rarely do, a “disposable” diaper still takes 250-500 years to decompose. As well, the manufacture and use of disposable diapers amounts to 2.3 times more water than cloth diapers, and creating them generates 60 times more solid waste and uses 20 times more raw materials, like crude oil and wood pulp. But while Voldman expected to find disturbing facts regarding disposable diapers’ toxicity on our planet, she didn’t realize families in need are not eligible to receive government assistance for the purchase of diapers. “It seemed ridiculous that cloth diapers were becoming so popular again, but the upfront costs for the more popular modern styles could be overwhelming to many and especially those on tight budgets,” Voldman said. “After I used cloth diapers so successfully with my second child, the idea of helping others use cloth diapers became more and more important to me. I really wanted to find a way to help families at all income levels overcome the barriers to switching to cloth.” In Voldman’s research, she ran across Sweet Cheeks Diaper Kits, a non-profit in North Carolina that makes cloth diapers from recycled 100 percent cotton T-shirts, and gives them to low-income families. Voldman loved the idea and wanted to do the same, but wasn’t sure where to start. So she called local cloth diaper consultant Colby Rasmussen, which proved to be serendipitous. “When I told her what I wanted to do she said ‘Wow, that’s been on my heart but I didn’t know what I wanted to do about it,’” said Voldman. The two ladies joined forces and launched Cutie Bondoonie Diaper Kits in November 2011, and gave away their first kit this February. With a generous nod to Sweet Cheeks in North Carolina for the basic blueprint of Cutie Bondoonie, Voldman and Rasmussen hold t-shirt drives to collect the cloth for their diapers. When they have enough t-shirts and donated flannel sheets, they sanitize the material and then hold a Diaper Derby, which is a volunteer assembly line where diapers are cut from the fabric and snaps are adhered. For absorbency, multiple strips of fabric are placed down the middle. Then the assembled diapers are sent to more volunteers who use serger sewing machines to sew the edges. “It’s really fun when we get t-shirts with cute designs on them and when we can make real specific girl or boy diapers, depending on the shirt” said Voldman. The kits provide everything a family will need to start cloth diapering one baby, including 24-36 diapers, six to eight waterproof covers, 24-36 cloth wipes, and two wetbags (launder bag for diapers), as well as other supplies. The waterproof covers are purchased from Walmart for the non-profit’s cost-efficiency, but the cloth wipes and wetbags are also made by volunteers. “The support from the community has been surprising and exciting. Youth groups, school groups…people have been so helpful holding their own t-shirt drives for us and coming to help at Diaper Derbies,” said Voldman. “Everyone can kind of get something from it, I think. The upcycling makes it a fun project…to see what can come from old t-shirts and a community coming together.” Before families receive a Cutie Bondoonie Diaper Kit, they must attend a class, taught by Rasmussen. The class guides potential recipients on how to fill out the required paperwork, showing their financial need and where to take it. They also learn the benefits of cloth diapering, and how to care for their diapers and how to make their own cloth diaper kits. “The education is so important because, as I know from my research, there is so much info out there,” says Voldman. “Our goal is not to make moms using disposable diapers feel bad, but to show them their options. Ideally, no one would need to come back for a second kit because they were able to build their own at home.” As of this fall, Cutie Bondoonie has given away four kits to needy families, and has an ongoing waiting list. “Another reason we provide the classes to the community and to our clients is that “hands-on” learning is the best way to go with cloth diapering. When people get their hands on the diapers and feel how soft they are and see how cute they are, even the most skeptical person begins to picture themselves using cloth,” says Voldman. In addition to working with local government agencies such as Yakima Neighborhood Health Services, Maternal Health Services, and the local WIC (Women, Infants, and Children) office, Cutie Bondoonie accepts proof of low income via an application and questionnaire. “Unfortunately, I feel like we’ll never be able to do as much for people as we want to, that’s why we teach them how to make their own. We advise them to use a little bit of the funds they would normally use on disposables each time, and put it towards building up their own supply,” says Voldman. “It’s like we were doing this for our sister or best friend, we want to do everything we can to set them up for success.”