Less Energy & Water is used with cotton

It takes 3.7 times more water to use disposables than to use diaper service. On the energy side, it takes 2.6 times more energy to provide disposable diapers than to use diaper service.

A report written by Carl Lehrburger, Jocelyn Mullen, and C.V. Jones concluded in part "Single-use diapers are shown to generate significantly more solid waste, to consume greater quantities of energy and raw materials, and to generate more potentially toxic pollutants on a per-diaper-change basis." The report continues "Considering the overall environmental burdens, and most notably the higher volumes of solid waste produced and energy and raw materials consumed by single-use diapers, reusable diapers are determined to be superior from an environmental perspective."