In the News

Business London, Consuming Interest September, 2007
September 2007
By Otte Rosenkrantz

There is no doubt that babies are just about the most adorable creatures on the planet. So it seems almost mean-spirited to point out that by the time the little angel is old enough to hop up on the toilet and take care of business by herself, she will have produced enough poop to float-or sink-a small navy. In fact, as any experiences parent will confirm the preoccupation with the quality, consistency, frequency, colour, smell and-very importantly-the disposal of the baby’s excrement becomes almost an obsession.

Of course, that baby poop has to go somewhere. About 50 years ago it went into a square of cloth folded into a triangle and pinned to the child with a safety pin. From there the poop went into the toilet and the diapers into the laundry. Pretty basic stuff, but enough of a nuisance that parents were eager to have the kid toilet trained as soon as possible-two years was long enough to have put up with leaky diapers and all that cleaning.

Then along came the disposable diaper, and new parents felt as though a heavy burden had been lifted, if not just from themselves.

But convenience always comes with a price, and in this case the price is twofold. Jill Lawrence, who along with her husband Mike Lawrence, owns and operates Bear Bottoms Diaper Service, a business specializing in the weekly supply, delivery and pick-up of cloth diapers, says disposable diapers are not only expensive, they are bad for the environment. The firm’s website, Bearbottoms.ca, notes that solid waste to our landfills, (fast food wrappers only contribute 0.1%). In addition, no long-term studies have been done to evaluate the potential impact that leachate from disposables has on our ecosystem.

“A disposable diaper that has been folded up, put in a plastic bag, and possible inside another plastic bag, then tossed into a landfill site, can last at least 500 years,” says Jill Lawrence. “That means that your great, great, great and so on, grandchild could potentially unwrap y our very own baby poop.”

Needless to say nobody wants that.

Secondly, disposable diapers are expensive in a financial as well as environmental sense. “Based on eight changes a day from birth to toddler, disposables will cost approximately $92 per month or $3 312 for three years,” says Lawrence. By comparison, the Bear Bottoms price is $19.95 a week, but that includes pick-up and delivery, and any number of benefits for the environment.

How to offset the environmental and financial costs of dealing with all that baby poop sent the Lawrence’s in search of a solution in 2005 when their daughter Charlize was born. “We were living in Edmonton at the time, and all hospitals in Edmonton use cloth diapers on newborns,” says Lawrence. “There was also a pre-birth supply waiting for Charlize at home from a diaper service in Edmonton. The convenience of not having to run out to get diapers was amazing, since fresh, soft clean diapers arrive at the door every week.”

When the young family moved to Kitchener, the parents were a little surprised to find there was no similar service there, so they decided to start their own. The result was Bear Bottoms Diaper Service, which uses only cloth diapers. The business is currently operating in Kitchener, Waterloo, Stratford and Guelph, and will be opening in London this month. There is also a possibility that franchises will be available in the not so distant future.

According to Lawrence, the benefits of cloth diapers over disposables are many. “Baby skin is very delicate and there are three enemies to baby skin-wetness, heat, and chemicals,” she explains. “Introduce any element, or any combination thereof, and your baby will likely develop a diaper rash. One study reports that only 7% of cloth diapered babies experience diaper rash compared with 78% of disposable diapered babies because of disposable diapers use chemicals to help absorb wetness.”

Lawrence says the Bear Bottom Diaper Service has been designed to make life as easy as possible for parents. Used cloth diapers are placed in a supplied odour-absorbing pail which is picked up once a week by a delivery service that uses eco-friendly propane powered trucks. The diapers are then rinsed and washed using a special biodegradable sanitizing wash to kill off bacteria, and returned to the client in pristine, sanitary condition.

The cloth diapers themselves are made from organically grown cotton and hemp blends so they are thin and absorbent, and unlike the cloth diapers of yesteryear that required safety pins, they are form-fitted-you simply put them on as you would a disposable diaper. In addition to the diaper service, Bear Bottoms also markets and sells numerous cloth diaper accessories including covers, training pants and swimwear.

Considering that the business is just over a year old, it has made remarkable strides, including having three full-time employees in addition to Jill and Mike. What comes next for the little family is trade marking, incorporating and franchising. “The demand is there,” says Lawrence, “but it is hard to find the time to do all the things we want.” So an assistant may be next on the list of possible hires. “We have about 200 clients at this point, and the list is constantly growing-some have signed up for the service even though they are not expecting their baby for a couple of months yet.

“The more we research what our society’s use of disposable material is doing to our children and the environment, the more determined we become to change things. Our official motto is ‘Isn’t it Time for a Change?’ My unofficial one is ‘Changing the World One Bum at a Time.’ The point is we want to give people a choice. This is not just about running a business, it’s about changing a way of life.”

Isn't it time for a change?


Telephone: 519-634-8600     diapers@bearbottoms.ca     Toll Free: 1-877-423-2726