Wonderful news! I am doing cloth at home, but have been getting the guilts about having to use disposables on the long haul flights between Norway and Australia - Glad there is a happy alternative to the hybrids. Sometimes a disposable is the only reasonable alternative. :)

I thought it was weird that the diaper manufacturers would recommend putting human waste in the trash, so I checked their website and found this in the related news article: "the diapers' packaging...recommends flushing solid waste down the toilet to reduce the amount going to landfills." Even with disposable diapers, you're supposed to put solid waste in the toilet (though nobody does--I only know this because we use cloth diapers).

I wonder if they mean the diapers break down in 90 days in a home composting situation, or just giant hot piles like city programs have. So many "compostable" utensils and plates are still pretty solid a year later in my little bin.

All human waste is supposed to be flushed down the toilet, including that contained in disposable diapers. People who use disposable diapers just don't want to hear it. Disposable diapers + large barrel of poop in a nursery REEK, even if people who use them stop smelling it.

gdiaper inserts fully compost and Nature Babycare are 60% biodegradable but neither work as well as cloth.

I use disposablediapers and flush poop down the toilet, so *some* of us know to do that! ;)

We use GroVia diaper inserts in cloth shells and I've understood that those are the same - they decompose in 90 days (vs. 300 years). The packaging is also cardboard and a biofriendly plastic. I really like them as they are better for baby and environment and I don't have to deal with all the extensive washing/care of full cloth.

I have always heard about dumping solid waste in toilets, but I have to admit I'm only on top of this part of the time.

So do diapers go in brown or green layers in your compost bin?

Sounds like this would work for folks lucky enough to have a municipal composting program, but any backyard compost bin would quickly be overwhelmed; there's just no way the diapers would break down fast enough.

But as a supplement to cloth diapers, I would definitely try them for those occasions when cloth is problematic.

Where I live, diapers (and anything contaminated with human or animal feces) are not allowed in the municipal compost, whether or not they say "compostable."

Scroll down to the bottom of this page to see the resonse to the question "Can people compost diapers at home?"
http://dandelionforbaby.com/blog/2012/04/the-newest-trend-in-diapering-compostable-diaper-service/

I wouldn't do it!

Anyone remember that skit in SNL for edible diapers? HA! I don't have kids, but I have always been curious about how to handle the inevitable babies need a diaper situation(I nanny). I like the idea of a compostable diaper when cloth cannot be used( I don't know anyone who uses cloth but if I have children I'd look into it), but for the price of the diapers, is it practical? Babies use a lot of diapers, and at $17 for ? how many? I still think we have a ways to go to get earth friendly diapers onto every baby.

Cloth G-diapers at home but this is nice to know for outside the home. Please FLUSH POOP though. I actually think it's illegal not to. If not it should be. Actually the poop in a landfill is even worse than the diaper once it can contaminate underground water sources.

DO NOT COMPOST HUMAN FECES IN YOUR BACKYARD COMPOST BIN! It won't get hot enough to kill all pathogenic organisms. You simply cannot meet the time/temperature requirements to kill of all the pathogens. You're not suppose to compost even dog poop or cat feces in backyard compost bins!

I just cannot get over how cute that baby pic is.

We just started using Honest Company diapers for our 6 week year old. They're supposedly biodegradable and they don't have any chemicals, plus they mail a month's supply of diapers and wipes right to your door

When we're not using cloth or gDiaper inserts we've used these Broody Chick compostable diapers. They're Canadian-made, so I'm not sure how readily available they are in the US but they're a great product.

http://www.broodychick.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=2&products_id=19

$17-18 for how many diapers? Seriously, I couldn't even find the count on their site. This could be a good thing, but not if that's for a ridiculously small number of diapers.

@DIZZYLIZZY They would be considered a brown because they are made from paper products (which are dead).

I use disposable diapers and always flush the poop. I'm sure there are a lot of people out there that just don't do it and don't want to hear it but maybe they don't know about flushing. Maybe they never took a parenting class or read the side of the box or had someone educate them on the subject.

I wanted to use cloth. My diapers arrived and they wanted me to wash them seperately, without detergent like 15 times before using. I still haven't found the time. Besides what an insane waste of water and energy.

I'm excited about the compostables.

Ok wow. This is the first I have ever heard of flushing poop. Or that poop was not good for the grass. Yes someone does need to educate ppl on this subject. Truly I just goggled it. The last I heard poop was good for the grass...flowers, all that.

Liking the compostable diaper.

Yeah never have I heard of anyone flushing poop in a disposable diaper.

I actually just posted the other day on how we have successfully composted our gDiapers and saved over 3,000 diapers from the landfill. And WE live n the city!

http://www.otherpiecesofme.com/2012/06/saving-3000-diapers-from-landfilla.html

Broody Chick diapers are also fully compostable, leakproof and great (but you are not supposed to compost the poo ones) and have been around for at least three years.
Starting at three months old after a very nasty rash, we started part time elimination communication (for the poos) and part cloth (when home or out and about) and used Broody chick diapers at night. Now my daughter is two and a half and toilet training wasn't an issue at all because she's been pooing on the toilet practically her whole life.
By the way, the company also makes feminine hygiene products that are environmentally friendly, if you use the disposable kind rather than reusable pads or cups: Nurture Verde, though the website is currently under construction there is a contact number on the site.

Seconding @bruintoo DO NOT PUT DIAPERS IN YOUR HOME COMPOST PILE. Human waste can be safely composted, but this should be done in a setting where temperatures are reliably high.

Also, landfilling these makes them pointless and it pisses me off that the manufacturer would recommend it. Landfills in this country are usually capped and sealed airtight to protect the surrounding area from leachate - not even newsprint breaks down in them quickly. Compostable materials in landfills are contributing to methane emissions. This product is total greenwashing, just use cloth diapers.

For folks still finding compostable cups etc in their piles, it's for this reason too. Even in the large-scale community composting program I help run it took more than a year for cups to break down. We do not accept any animal waste because we cannot certify that our temperatures are consistently high enough to kill off pathogens. I'm all in favor of composting everything we can and I do think it's pretty magical but as the concept spreads there's more and more misinformation about it out there.

No one here or from these companies is suggesting composting diapers with poop. All the companies are very clear that is for pee diapers only. And people who use gdiapers can easily compost in a regular home system. They don't need municipal facilities.

There are ways to safely home compost poop but is a very special method and wouldn't be part of regular compost heap.

I really don't see the difference between a septic tank (which we have) and "composting" all of the diapers. and by composting I mean digging a big hole and putting in the diapers, keeping the hole covered while it is being filled (garbage can lid) and then covering said filled hole with dirt and leaving it there. I have no intention of ever using this "compost" for anything but want a way to dispose of the diapers without using a landfill. But, I live out in the country so...

http://www.weblife.org/humanure/

Hey Everyone, This is a great conversation and I thought I would add my two cents. Full disclosure though, I work for EarthBaby the compostable diaper service. We are located in the San Francisco Bay Area. The way our service works is once a week we drop off compostable diapers (Nature Babycare diapers) and pick up the soiled diapers (poop and all). We then transport the dirty diapers to a professional compost facility and turned into dirt in 14 weeks. Throughout the process the compost is monitored closely to ensure it reaches high enough temperatures to kill off the pathogens in the human waste. We make sure our customers know they cannot put their dirty diapers in a home compost pile or a municipal compost bin for environmental safety reasons. We really try to educate our customers that diapers that go to landfill do not break down in a reasonable time frame due to the lack of oxygen. In order for compostable diapers to breakdown into dirt they need to be composted professionally.