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20 Apr 99 - grasscycling; the poop on disposable swimpants ** WASTE PREVENTION FORUM ** -- A project of the National Waste Prevention Coalition -------------------- >From John Fuller, Washoe County, NV: My question is: How can we calculate the yards/tonnage of grass clippings (grasscycling) that are left on the ground from the mowing of our parks and golf courses? Thank you. E-mail: JFULLER (A T) MAIL (D O T) CO (D O T) WASHOE (D O T) NV (D O T) US -------------------- The next six postings are in response to the 4/19/99 posting about Huggies "Little Swimmers" disposable swimpants, a Kimberly-Clark product: -------------------- >From Blair Pollock, Orange Community Recycling, Chapel Hill, NC: A lot of public pools don't allow children still in diapers in them for obvious reasons. I could see these disposable swim suits as an answer to that, having in the past been told to leave the pool with my three-year-old nephew who loved to swim but was not quite completely toilet trained yet. E-mail: bpollock ( A T ) town ( D O T ) ci ( D O T ) chapel-hill ( D O T ) nc ( D O T ) us ------------------- >From Karen Higgins, City of Los Angeles, CA: I have seen these, as they did mass mailings of them, and my family and friends with kids received them in the mail -- Southern California, lots of pools, beaches, etc. The parents loved them because they allowed kids in the pool without worrying about them going to the bathroom. If kids wear disposable diapers in the pool they do become very heavy and probably dangerous for the child, in my opinion. The disposable swimpants are very expensive, I think about a buck each, so no one has rushed out to buy many. Personally I'd skip both types of disposables and just not worry about it that much, but I don't have kids... Having a baby in the 90's seems to be fraught with waste... E-mail: KMHiggin [ A T ] GROUPWISE [ D O T ] SAN [ D O T ] CI [ D O T ] LA [ D O T ] CA [ D O T ] US ------------------ >From David Stitzhal, Full Circle Environmental, Seattle, WA: My uninformed two bits is that swimming pools have been dumping enough chlorine and bromine in their waters for decades to render pointless any diaper in a pool. As sad as the overuse of chemicals in pools is, my guess is that at a minimum they make the need for the Little Swimmers redundant. (Of course I am only talking pee here. Poop is a whole other chlorinated kettle of fish.) E-mail: fullcirc [AT] nwnexus [DOT] com ------------------- >From Lori Weber, environmental journalist, Cleveland, OH: I use the disposable swimpants and have found them to be pretty good - and I hate disposable stuff, for the most part. Many pools won't take kids under the age of 4 because they're afraid of the potential mess. I've used the regular plastic pants with cloth diapers - which work fine unless the kid makes a mega mess in the pool. No fun for anyone. The Huggies disposable swimpants don't have a plastic casing. They rely on an anti-swelling substance (similar to what's in feminine hygiene products and normal diapers) to absorb liquid. They're mostly paper product. I took a package on a recent vacation to Florida - and my kids swam for hours every day. It's very possible to use the pants more than once. I was able to get two swim sessions out of one pair - again depending on the kind of mess the kid made. If they don't take a dump, they can be used again. Anyway - one package of 8 sufficed for a 10-day trip, and I brought 3 back. For trips to public pools - I think they're fine. E-mail: lori ( AT ) modex ( DOT ) com ------------------ >From Susan Kinsella, Susan Kinsella and Associates, Novato, CA: I've seen some of our local pools beginning to post signs requiring kids not potty-trained to wear something like disposable swimpants and, unfortunately, I think they're a good idea. (I don't know what's included in the materials used to make them, so can't comment on whether THAT'S a good idea.) But the problem they're attempting to solve is increasingly frustrating, and sometimes quite serious. Remember last summer there were at least two incidents nationally of kids getting seriously ill (did one even die?) from swimming at waterslide parks in pools contaminated by little kids pooping in the water? The local community pools where my 6-year-old swims at daycamp in the summer were closed fairly often for the same reason. He got an infection from swimming in one of them that resulted in continually distressing problems that disrupted the first three months of kindergarten. When the pools are open, they're so awash in chlorine that the kids' eyes sting, but even that doesn't seem to prevent contamination. Our local YMCA says that it takes them nearly 24 hours to clean and cycle the water back through after a seemingly minor accident. So I appreciate a product that will protect others. My own experience when my son was small was that there were no diapers, disposable or reusable, that could really do the job (no pun intended). They gapped and leaked and swelled up until the kids looked like they were wearing beachballs and then the disposable ones shredded. It didn't seem to be a problem when I was a kid because we always swam in lakes or ponds or kiddie pools that were emptied each day. But, like so many things, it's different now . . . . E-mail: SEEK251 (A T) aol (D O T) com ------------------ >From Steve Goldstein, Snohomish County Public Works, Everett, WA: I've used the "Little Swimmers" on my son when he was younger. They are not disposable swimsuits, but disposable diapers which are suitable for a swimming pool - they don't swell - but more importantly they don't disintegrate in the water. If you accept the use of disposable diapers, these are merely disposable diapers for a particular purpose. E-mail: Steve [DOT] Goldstein [AT] co [DOT] snohomish [DOT] wa [DOT] us -end -