Killea’s Battle on Disposable Diapers Gets Boost in Assembly

Sen. Lucy Killea’s campaign against the use of disposable diapers received a significant boost Monday when an Assembly committee agreed to revive her idea to require environmental warning labels on packages of the single-use diapers.

The Assembly Natural Resources Committee voted 7 to 3 to require a label saying, “Environmental Warning: Single-use disposable diapers create significant environmental problems and costs to the community when disposed.”

The label had been requested by Killea (D-San Diego) as part of an earlier plan to curtail the use of the diapers and relieve pressure on the state’s landfills. But, faced with industry opposition, the provision was stripped out of her diaper bill in the Senate.

However, the Assembly felt differently and inserted the labeling requirement in a Killea bill Monday. If the full Assembly agrees, the Senate concurs and the governor signs the requirement into law, Killea’s measure would make it illegal for manufacturers to sell packages of the disposable diapers without the warning label after Jan. 1, 1992. Violation of the proposed law would carry a $50 fine per package.

When she introduced her disposable diaper reduction plan, Killea said nearly 2.5 billion of the single-use diapers are sent annually to dwindling landfills or thrown away as litter--an output that costs the state $56 million in disposal costs. If parents were to switch to old-fashioned cloth diapers, or even those with new Velcro fasteners, the savings over disposable diapers would be $1,500 per child, Killea said.