Breastfeeding is considered the most natural and best source of nutrition for your child. Other than all the nourishing qualities of breast milk, it offers early and long-term health benefits for both you and your baby! However, are you aware of the advantages of breastfeeding and it’s the impact (or the lack thereof) on mother nature?
If you think about it, breastfeeding really is the most ecological way you can feed your baby. When compared to formula feeding, breastfeeding uses less money, energy, products, and other resources. And with less production and processes involved, there will be fewer waste products that can pollute the environment.
5 Ecological Benefits of Breastfeeding
- Natural and environmentally-friendly. In terms of its carbon footprint, breastmilk dramatically cuts a family’s carbon contribution to the world. That’s because breast milk is a natural and renewable resource, without needing any manufacturing, packaging, shipping, or disposal, unlike formula milk!
- Using reusable products. Breastfeeding might still require you to purchase some gears and products, but the good thing is that most of them are recyclable and reusable.
- Animal-friendly. The production of formula milk requires the use of cow’s milk. Farming and processing everything from animal to formula demands so much land and water resources. Formula milk production costs 1241 gallons of water and 30 times more carbon emissions.
- Less waste and energy. Opting to breastfeed instead of using formula milk to nurse your baby means that you’re also reducing the use of natural resources (like plastic, metal, paper, or glass), and eventually lesser waste in landfills.
- Savings for you and your family. Did you know that you can save up to $1200 by choosing to breastfeed instead of formula feeding? In addition, breastfeeding generally promotes good health for you and your child. That also means a reduced need for costly health services and more savings for your pocket!
Breast Milk vs Formula Milk: Environmental Impacts
Formula milk can be quite the life-saver, especially for premature babies and mothers with really poor milk supply. But considering the way it’s manufactured and processed, it does leave some dents on the health of our environment. The increasing use of formula milk has left these following waste products per year:
- 2.5 million pounds of paper
- 2.5 million pounds of metal
- 27 million gallons of milk, requiring 465 million pounds of dairy-fed to produce
- 6 million gallons of oil for production, transportation, and refrigeration
- 135 million pounds of carbon dioxide produced by the use of those 6 million gallons of oil
If you put these numbers into translation, this is how much formula feeding impacts the environment:
- In the US, almost 550 million containers of formula milk are sold each year. These products along when stacked end to end can circle the world for about one and a half times!
- With 550 million containers, you would be using 1,230 tons of paper for just one year’s worth of formula milk!
- Feeding bottles, teats, and pacifiers are made from plastic that would take about 200 to 450 years to deteriorate and break down!
- Alternating breast milk with commercial milk would require 135 million lactating cows.
So mommyz, take this information as a challenge and motivation to breastfeed even more! Not only will you be doing what’s good for you and your baby, but you will be helping out the environment as well. The contribution to protect and preserve the environment through breastfeeding will be a valuable gift to give for your child’s future.
