# How do I calculate the carbon footprint of a baby diaper?

Canonical: https://senseible.earth/answers/baby-diaper-carbon-footprint-per-piece

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.

- [Product carbon footprint calculator](https://senseible.earth/calculators/product-carbon-footprint)
- [Sanitary napkin footprint](https://senseible.earth/answers/sanitary-napkin-carbon-footprint-per-pad)
- [Tissue paper footprint](https://senseible.earth/answers/tissue-paper-carbon-footprint-per-kg)
- [Paper industry](https://senseible.earth/industries/paper)

Sources: [GHG Protocol Product Standard](https://ghgprotocol.org/standards), [ISO 14067:2018, Carbon footprint of products (iso.org)](https://www.iso.org), [IPCC 2006 Guidelines, Volume 2 Energy (fuel defaults)](https://www.ipcc-nggip.iges.or.jp/public/2006gl/vol2.html), [CEA CO2 Baseline Database, version 21.0](https://cea.nic.in/cdm-co2-baseline-database/?lang=en)

Last reviewed 2026-10-20.