Cloth or Disposable in Singapore?
The cloth-versus-disposable conversation usually arrives carrying more moral weight than it deserves, and it's almost always conducted using numbers from countries with tumble dryers and cold tap water.
Here it's a different question, so I'll answer it from where we live: a flat with no dryer.
The case for cloth
There is one, though it looks different here from the places where most of these articles get written.
Cost is the strongest argument, over time and over more than one child. The upfront outlay is significant, the per-use cost approaches zero, and the same set can serve a second baby, which for us meant Charles in what Richard had worn, for the months we kept it up.
Whether cloth is greener is harder to say than either side admits. The best-known lifecycle study, from the UK Environment Agency in 2008, put disposables at about 550 kg of CO2 over two and a half years and reusables at about 570 kg with average washing and drying. It's a full count for both: manufacture, transport, detergent, water, electricity and disposal.
The reusable figure moved most with how people washed. Fuller loads or always line drying cut it by 16 per cent, and reusing the set on a second child cut it by about 40. Always tumble drying raised it by 43 per cent, and washing at 90 degrees as well pushed it up by 75. Line drying helps, but it doesn't settle the question alone. They're UK numbers on UK electricity, so read them as a direction for Singapore and not as an answer.
Some parents prefer having no absorbent gel against the skin on principle, even where there's no evidence of harm, and that's a reasonable preference to hold. And you'll never make a ten o'clock run to the pharmacy because you've run out.
Less rash isn't a reason, in either direction. A 2024 survey of 1,389 children in Brazil found mild rash in 47.0 per cent of disposable users and 47.5 per cent of cloth users, with no significant difference. What matters is how long wetness sits against the skin, and with cloth, how well the detergent is rinsed out.
The case against, here specifically
This is where advice from other countries breaks down, because every objection below comes from the climate or the housing. Drying is the biggest problem by far. In 80 per cent ambient humidity, thick cotton or bamboo inserts can take a day and a half to dry on a rack, and any rotation that assumes overnight drying will collapse by the third day. A dryer, or a laundry service, changes the entire calculation. Space is the second. A cloth rotation needs somewhere to keep clean stock, somewhere to hold soiled stock and somewhere to dry, and in a four-room flat that's three places you don't have going spare. Smell is the third, since ammonia develops faster in warm humid conditions and soiled storage is much less forgiving here than in a temperate climate.
Then there's labour, and specifically whose it is. If a helper or a grandparent is doing the day-to-day care, this decision changes their workload materially, and it should be made together with them. Charles is with my mother-in-law on weekdays and I wouldn't have made this choice without asking her first.
Heat is the last one. Cloth diapers are bulkier, and in this weather some babies seem warmer in them, though I haven't seen a study that settles it, so watch your own baby.
Either way
The hybrid most people land on
This part's my preference and what I've seen among friends here. It isn't a finding. Very few families I know run cloth exclusively, and the happiest ones never tried to. A mixed approach removes the failure points without throwing away the benefits.
Cloth at home during the day, when a leak costs you nothing more than a change of clothes. Disposables overnight, where absorbency counts most and a three in the morning cloth change is a very poor trade. Disposables when you're out, when you're travelling, and for whoever is doing the care that day if that's what they'd prefer.
Disposables entirely for the first six weeks. Nobody needs to learn a new laundry system in the weeks after giving birth.
If you're going to try cloth
Start smaller than the internet will tell you to. Drying is the constraint in a flat with no dryer and it decides everything else, so plan around it first.
Buy a small trial set of two or three styles before you commit, because fit varies as much with cloth as it does with disposables. Be realistic about your drying capacity before you buy the rotation, and count the rack space you have. The rack space you intend to acquire doesn't count. I'd guess we had about two thirds of what we needed. I never measured it.
Plan for roughly 30 to 36 diapers for a full-time newborn rotation, washing every other day, since a day and a half on the rack keeps a third of the set out of use. Agree the routine out loud with everybody who will be using it, in advance.
What goes where afterwards
Disposables aren't recyclable, so keep them out of the blue bin. NEA's blue bins take clean paper, plastic, metal and glass, and a used diaper isn't any of those. Bag it tightly and put it out with the general waste.
Solid poo goes where local sanitation guidance says, usually the toilet, and that's true of both systems. With cloth, you'll tip it out before the diaper goes in the wash bucket.
Where we stand
We make bamboo textiles and sell our Luxury Tape Diapers, a disposable with a bamboo-infused topsheet, so we're hardly disinterested here.
Mentioned above
What decides it is whether your system lasts a real week, in a real flat, with the real people doing the work. A cloth rotation abandoned in month two costs more than disposables ever would, and a fair bit of goodwill too.
Asked at the playground
Is cloth diapering practical in Singapore?
It's workable but harder than in temperate climates. The main obstacle is drying: in high ambient humidity, thick inserts can take a day and a half on a rack, so a rotation assuming overnight drying will fail. Access to a dryer or a laundry service changes the calculation substantially.
Is cloth cheaper than disposable?
Over time, and especially across more than one child, yes. The upfront outlay is significant but the per-use cost approaches zero. Factor in water, detergent and electricity, more so if you use a dryer, and the value of the labour involved.
Is cloth better for the environment?
It depends on how you wash. A UK lifecycle study found the two systems close, about 550 kg against 570 kg of CO2 over two and a half years. Hot washes and tumble drying pushed cloth well behind, and fuller loads, line drying and reuse on a second child brought it ahead.
Do cloth diapers cause less rash?
Not in the evidence so far. A 2024 study of 1,389 children found mild rash rates of about 47 per cent with both. Frequent changes matter most, and with cloth, rinsing the detergent out well.
Can disposable diapers go in the blue recycling bin?
No. Blue bins take clean paper, plastic, metal and glass. A used diaper goes in the general waste, bagged, with any solid poo tipped into the toilet first where local guidance says so.
Are cloth diapers hotter for the baby?
They're bulkier than a thin disposable, and some parents find their baby seems warmer in them in this climate. I haven't seen a study that settles it, so watch how your own baby copes.
How many cloth diapers do I need?
Roughly 30 to 36 for a full-time newborn rotation if you wash every other day, since rack drying keeps a third of the set out of use at any time. Buy a small trial set of two or three styles first, since fit varies between brands as much as it does with disposables.
Can I use cloth and disposables together?
Yes. It's my own preference and what most families I know settle on: cloth at home during the day, disposables overnight, when out, and while travelling. Many also use disposables entirely for the first six weeks.
What I read for this
- NHS: Nappy rash
- NHS: Changing a nappy
- UK Environment Agency: Lifecycle assessment of disposable and reusable nappies (2008)
- Uber et al., Cloth versus disposable diapers, Jornal de Pediatria 2024
- NEA: What goes in the blue recycling bin
- HealthHub: Ministry of Health Singapore
This guide is general information, written to help you understand a topic and ask better questions. It is not medical advice and does not replace your own doctor, midwife or paediatrician. Anything that worries you about your baby belongs with them.
Read next: Bamboo vs Conventional Diapers · How Many Diapers Will You Need? Per Day and First Year
← More on diaperingAll 189 guidesShop: Little Rei luxury diapers →