A Dorval woman believes part of the key to a greener world is some older technology for the youngest people.
“I cloth diaper my children so that is the first inspiration to any sort of change that I want to make in the city,” said Amanda seebeck.
In Quebec roughly 600 million diapers end up in landfills every year. Each diaper can take hundreds of years to decompose. To reduce that waste Seebeck started a petition asking the City of Dorval to subsidize the cost of cloth diapers.
“It’s not just about the babies, it’s not just about the moms who diaper, it’s not just about the dads who diaper,” she said. “It’s literally about changing one little thing in your life.”
Seebeck said it costs around $400 to $500 to purchase everything needed to start cloth diapering. Several Montreal boroughs, including Cote-des-Neiges-NDG already provide subsidies.
“You can imagine how many diapers end up in our landfills and they take forever to break down,” said CDN-NDG Mayor Sue Montgomery. “They’re really expensive so I would really like this to catch on, not only for environmental reasons but for economic reasons.”
Verdun also offer incentives such as giving families $100 towards cloth diapers.
“The diaper is a little more expensive when you start but after that the cost is really low for the next month and you can keep the same diaper for the next baby,” said Mayor Jean-Francois Parenteau.
Both boroughs are encouraging Dorval to get on board. In a statement, city officials said they will discuss the issue at a council meeting after the petition is submitted.
Seebeck said she plans to present the petition before Christmas.
