Green Things Part 3

Re-Furbishing Diaper Wipes

I know. You're thinking "WHAT? It's the convenience you pay for when you buy wipes. Convenience. What's next? Re-using your kleenex?" Actually, I learned accidentally that wipes could be washed and re-used. I must've unintentionally tossed a wet wipe in with the wet diapers. Because there it was, in the dryer, all fluffed up, clean, but still intact. And then I got to thinking... Since we launder our own cloth diapers, isn't it a bit silly to be throwing all those wipes away. I mean we're washing it all anyway. And for the most part, if they don't catch on some velcro from one of the pocket diapers while they're in the dryer, then the wipes are perfectly re-usable.

At first, I was recycling just a couple every few days, since it took some time to remember to put them in the diaper pail and not the trash. With just a few dry wipes to "reconstitute," the easiest thing to do to get them soaked again with the wipe fluid, was to put them underneath the new wipes in the box. There's usually so much excess liquid in the new wipes that it soaks down through the recycled wipes and they're nice and wet--just like new--by the time I get to them. However, now I'm managing to get almost all of the wipes into the diaper pail for washing and re-use so I've got quite a stack going. And there's far too many of them to merely soak up the excess fluid of the brand new wipes.

So, what to do with all these fluffy, dry wipes? I found a recipe for homemade diaper wipes online, which calls for:
2 T. baby oil
2 T. baby bath or shampoo
2 cups boiled water, then cooled

That's seems VERY easy. And CHEAP. And GREEN! The author of this recipe actually made her own wipes from a roll of paper towel. She could get 2 boxes of wipes with 1 roll of paper towels. To buy a refill 3-pack of wipes costs around $8 or over $2 per pack. If a roll of paper towel costs $1, she would save close to 75% per box when when she made her own wipes.

Which gets me to thinking... I wonder how expensive Seventh Generation paper towels are? Or other paper towels made from recycled paper? Would they be too rough to be used as wipes, even once they've been soaked in the wipe liquid? Hmmm... Although, that may defeat my efforts in my Green Things Part 2 post. Will have to figure this out.