How do I calculate the carbon footprint of a baby diaper?
Weigh the fluff pulp, superabsorbent polymer, non-woven sheets, film and elastics per diaper and multiply each by its supplier figure. Add the converting line's electricity and packing, then divide by diapers packed.
Material
- Fluff pulp and superabsorbent polymer.
- Non-woven top sheet and back sheet film.
- Elastics, tapes and adhesive.
Process
- High speed converting line.
- Compressed air and dust extraction.
- Bagging and cartons.
Per piece
Report per diaper by size, since a larger size carries more pulp and polymer.
Worked example: baby diaper unit per piece (one month)
- Electricity: 60,000 kWh x 0.710 = 42,600 kg CO2
- Pieces produced: 5,000,000
- Plant total: 42,600 / 5,000,000 = 0.00852 kg CO2 per piece
- Add pulp, polymer and sheets for the full figure
Inputs are illustrative; use your own bills and production records.
What Senseible does here
Senseible reads the plant's electricity bills (CEA grid factor 0.710 kg CO2 per kWh, CO2 Baseline Database version 21.0) and fuel invoices (IPCC 2006 defaults) into a fingerprinted Scope 1 and 2 record, the plant-level input to a per-unit figure. Bought-in materials go to the supplier evidence trail; product reports are self-declared drafts.
Sources: GHG Protocol Product Standard, ISO 14067:2018, Carbon footprint of products (iso.org), IPCC 2006 Guidelines, Volume 2 Energy (fuel defaults), CEA CO2 Baseline Database, version 21.0
Last reviewed 2026-10-20.