JAN, THE TOY LADY, READS ONE OF MANY BOOKS NOW IN STOCK AT WHIZ KIDS:
“Six little rabbits!”
Mr. McGre gor said as he dropped th e bunnies in to his sack.
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30 INLANDER APRIL 17, 2014
GREEN ISSUE
THE GREENEST BABY ON THE BLOCK What to do when your household adds another footprint BY MIKE BOOKEY
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In the first days of parenthood, you don’t think about your newborn’s environmental impact or how you’re going to keep the planet intact for his future. You’re mostly just trying to keep your brain from exploding upon realizing that you’ve been tasked with caring for a human being. It doesn’t take long for that to change, and I saw it happen within the past year. You think about the environment when you drop another diaper in the trash, or bump up the thermostat one more time, or run a load of puke-drenched laundry, or put a few days of dirty bottles through the dishwasher. You’re buying more stuff — baby stuff — most of it inexplicably packaged in several layers of cardboard, plastic, staples and other high-security wrapping. It’s easy to forget you’ve added another human to your household and that we humans leave a massive wake. This means more garbage, more energy usage (probably a higher power bill) and a larger overall impact on the environment coming out of your household. When you bring a child into your home, you’re no longer just thinking of your own
NINE MONTHS’ WORTH OF DIAPERS FOR ONE BABY. (BASED ON AN ESTIMATED SIX A DAY)
needs, you’re mostly thinking about your child’s needs and what’s comfortable and safe for them, notes Tom Lienhard, Avista’s chief efficiency engineer. Babies are often put near the floor — maybe in a rocker or on a blanket — and the parent gets down on the floor to check on them, then notices it’s colder down there. So up go temperatures in the house, Lienhard says. If you run warm, as I do and always have, those first few months of parenthood will be a sweaty time for you. Also sweaty will be the moments after opening your first utility bill as a parent, especially if your son has reflux and pukes with aplomb on both your clothes and his. What really gets you feeling environmentally guilty is the poop and the pee. Well, not the poop and the pee themselves, but how you catch it. There’s a lot of it, too. A 1998 study in the United Kingdom found that during the time a baby is in diapers (2.5 years on average) he or she will produce as much as 133 gallons of urine and 107 pounds of fecal mater. Gross. The first few weeks of parenting seemed to be a drowsy blur punctuated only by diaper