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6 green reasons why breastfeeding is the best feeding

Not only is breast milk free, nutritious and easily portable, it's also a waste-free renewable resource. Jennifer Chait explores some options.

By Jennifer ChaitTue, Aug 11 2009 at 9:30 AM EST
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AU NATURALE: Start your baby's life off right, and green, with breast milk. (Photo: myllissa/Flickr)
As an expecting or new parent, breastfeeding your baby is one of the smartest, and greenest, decisions you can make. Here are six reasons to give bottles the boot:
 
1. Breastfeeding saves energy
Breast milk is ready to go straight from the tap, and it's already the perfect temperature for your baby — no heating required. Breastfeeding saves the energy needed to mass produce and distribute baby bottles and formula, and even recycling the bottles consumes energy. Breast milk, however, has its own convenient storage facility. While many parents make a few bottles of formula at once and store them in the fridge, breasts don't need to be kept on ice.
 
2. Breastfeeding is plastic-free
Most baby bottles on the market contain various forms of plastic. Plastic, usually made with oil, is one of the world's worst environmental scorns. There are no hard-and-fast numbers about just how much petroleum is used to make plastic, but most studies estimate that it accounts for about 8 percent of the world's yearly oil consumption. Besides draining fuel resources, plastics produce harmful and toxic wastes such as carbon dioxide, nitrogen oxide and more, all of which are taking a toll on the air, water and soil, not to mention our health. Lastly, as much as people love to talk about recycling, many plastic bottles never even make it to the recycling plant, and even when they do, they aren't typically recycled into new bottles. Plastics are not part of a closed-loop recycling plan. Instead plastics are downcycled into other products, a process that may not be energy or cost-efficient.
 
3. Breastfeeding is biodegradable
Baby bottles are a very specific product. While you may be able to repurpose some for other household applications (think paint dispensers and marble jars) they're really only useful for one task — feeding your baby. You can buy plastic, glass or even Earth-friendly bottles, but in the end, you've got a product on your hands with limited usefulness and a limited lifespan. You can recycle some bottles, sure, but even with recyclable ones, not all parts are recyclable (such as the nipples and liners), and that contributes to our overstuffed landfill issue. We're not ancient Greeks, but like them, our baby bottles do not biodegrade.
 
4. Breastfeeding reduces waste
Bottles and formula present a costly and excessive packaging problem. Boxes, paper and plastics that take energy both to manufacture and recycle are used to package bottles, bottle accessories and formula. Meanwhile, a mother's milk is waste-free, unless of course you count Victoria's Secret as fancy breast-milk packaging. But, hey, at least they're working on organics and going green!
 
5. Breastfeeding reduces gasoline use
Breastfeeding stops those late-night trips to the grocery store for formula. Breastfeeding reduces the need for gasoline used to ship bottles and formula. Breastfeeding may even reduce drives to the pediatrician's office, since breastfed babies are typically healthier.
 
6. Breastfeeding reduces exposure to chemicals
Many brands of baby bottles in recent years have been shown to leach dangerous chemicals such as bisphenol-A (BPA) and phthalates both into babies' milk and into the air, soil and water. You can choose lead-free glass baby bottles over traditional plastic ones, but these pose their own breakage and recycling issues. You can also buy nontoxic baby bottles, although these can be expensive. If you're concerned about toxins in breast milk, research suggests you shouldn't worry. While breast milk can contain low levels of toxins, formula presents much larger ecological problems. The most economical, nontoxic choice for your baby and the planet is breastfeeding.
 
 
MNN homepage photo: netris/iStockphoto
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Related Topics: Green Kids, Organic Baby, Raising Healthy Kids

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anonymous
katey 01/27/2010 20:42 PM

so what about the people who have issues breastfeeding. life and new motherhood are hard enough without making women feel inferior for not stepping up to the model you've outlined.

anonymous
little hippo 11/26/2011 13:55 PM

they are recommendations. not singling you out. if you cant do it. you cant do it. why are people so touchy?

anonymous
Helga 10/07/2011 14:25 PM

breastfeeding is best. It's a fact. Just like a mothering relationship is better if the mom stays home. People can make other life choices. It's a free country... but, the science is there.

anonymous
Nicole 08/24/2009 13:17 PM

Bottles are still needed
Just check to make sure you get ones that are bpa-free.

ecpdancer
ecpdancer 08/12/2009 14:56 PM

JW, I don't think this article is trying to say that breastfeeding is the only option. However, if you compare the pros and cons to formula feeding, breastfeeding is the option with the least waste, packaging, energy used, etc.

anonymous
JW 08/11/2009 19:49 PM

While I consider myself a pretty hard core environmentalist, this goes one step too far. Breastfeeding is not always an option.

Plus, way to dismiss the issue of toxic loads in mother's milk. They can be just as threatening as BPA plastic.

anonymous
Maria Energia 08/11/2009 19:16 PM

I'm about to start breastfeeding when our first baby is born in October, and there are still supplies to purchased for pumping and storing milk - including bottles so Dad can feed him too. Granted, it's less waste and money than if we were using formula, but there are several levels to it!

anonymous
Anonymous 08/11/2009 11:42 AM

My favorite reason: "5. Breastfeeding reduces gasoline use." For some reason, I find this really funny... thanks Captain Obvious?

anonymous
Anonymous 08/11/2009 11:37 AM

Bummer for infertile moms who adopt then... i guess we will just go ahead and trash the planet while we are at it.

anonymous
CL 08/11/2009 11:52 AM

Everyone with nipples is capable of lactating, thus breastfeeding (technically males, too, though it might be a challenge)? You technically don't have to be the biological mother of the baby to breastfeed. Anthropologically, that was how tribes and villages supported each other -- communal child rearing and breast feeding (as crazy as that sounds to western ears).

anonymous
RB 08/11/2009 12:39 PM

haha CL your statement reminded me of that scene at the dinnertable in the movie Meet the Parents.

anonymous
CL 08/12/2009 10:14 AM

RB, I swear it's true!
It's common knowledge that Ben Stiller tells no lies, after all! ;)

anonymous
Brenda Parrish, CLC 08/11/2009 11:10 AM

Even after considering the ways breastfeeding is friendly to the environment, consider this: It's the biological norm for our species. Each mammal produces milk that is perfect for its own species, humans are no exception! What better 'environment' to invest in than our own health! Study after study reinforces the knowledge that breastfeeding has both short and long term benefits for both mother and baby. We each want to improve our environment to sustain the earth and make it a healthier.... More

anonymous
aliG 08/11/2009 11:02 AM

I never thought about the environmental benefits of breastfeeding. What a great article!

erin.p.fielding
erin.p.fielding 08/11/2009 10:52 AM

Besides all of the numerous health benefits of breastfeeding, it is completely "green" for all the reasons outlined above. I know some people have physical obstacles that keep them from breastfeeding, but if you can, you should!

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