Cloth vs. Disposable Diapers and Waste

One of the biggest reasons cited for the use of reusable a.k.a cloth diapers is the environmental one. Personally this is one of my BIGGEST reasons.
Disposable diapers are destructive to the environment on so many levels. One they fill the land fills, it takes an estimated 500 years for diapers to decompose. An average child uses an average of 5,000 diapers in first 24 months. So a typical family of 2 children will send on average 10,000 diapers to the landfill, adds up when you think about it. "Americans throw away enough disposable diapers each year to stretch from the moon and back at least 7 times" ~Julia Butterfly Hill. The second biggest reason of which I didn't know until I began my research is ground water contamination. Much of out water comes from underground. The sky rains and the ground soaks it up, then we pump it up from underground reservoirs. Did you know it is against the law to dump human waste in landfills for that very reason? Did you also know that, that particular law isn't enforced when it comes to diapers? Run off from the landfill and it's millions of diapers busy taking 500 years to decompose could infest our water with polio, hepatitis and dysentery to name a few.
Cloth diapers don't fill landfills, they are made of natural cloths that don't take 500 years to decompose. part of washing a cloth diaper is dumping the waste into the toilet where it is then taken to a sewage plant and treated.
A recent factor brought to light, and used in many discussions I have personally had, is the water wasted in washing all those cloth diapers. There are so many ways to dispute this, however I picked one.
A typical top lading, non-conserving washer uses 40-45 gallons of water per load( According to the Consumer report and California Energy Commission Consumer Energy Center). I'll go with 45. If you wash diapers every other day that is 3 loads a week. 45 x 3= 135 gallons a week x 4 weeks a month= 540 gallons of water a month used to wash cloth diapers. Compared to say some on who waters their lawn 30 minutes a day 7 days a week. A Garden Hose without shutoff nozzle can pour 530 gallons water in a hour. Yard watering by hand is typically 9 gallons per minute. So 9 gallons x 30 minutes = 270 x 7 days= 1890 x 4 weeks= 7560 gallons a month. Obviously, using cloth diapers uses way less water then many other things we do in life. For a list on water saving ideas and to find out where does all our water go click here.
My personal opinion is that the water I 'waste' to help prevent groundwater contamination and save 5,000+ diapers from going to the landfill, is better than water wasted for green lawns and vanity.