After a year of hard work, the cloth diaper industry has a brand new trade association. The Real Diaper Industry Association (RDIA) is designed to bring together the cloth diaper manufacturers and cloth diaper retailers to help promote cloth diapering. 

The first meeting to discuss the opportunity to create an associaiton were held in Las Vegas in 2007 in conjunction with the ABC Kids Show, a large exposition of manufacturers of children’s items. The handful of cloth diaper manufacturers who attended that first meeting left with a dream of a trade association to being together cloth diaper manufacturers to help increase the use of cloth diapers and to help standardize the industry. One of their early goals was to create standardized washing instructions to make it easier for cloth diaper users to care for their diapers.

This year there were three meetings, again in Vegas at the ABC Kids Show. First the manufacturers met, with many familiar brands represented including Happy Heiny’s, Kissaluvs, Wahmies/Drybees, All Together Diaper Company, Firefly Diapers/Refuz, Bummis, Little Beetle Organics, BumGenius, Sheepish Grins, Bumkins and more. In all there were about 40 manufacturer’s representatives in attendance. They discussed the new proposed standardized washing instructions, the goals of the association, and some ways to spread the word cloth diapering.

The retailer meeting was impressive, with what surely must have been the largest group of cloth diaper retailers ever assembled. About 80 retailers were there, including small, new stores and established long-time retailers. Talk turned to sharing the advantages of cloth diapers with the public and how to use the association to improve cloth diaper usage.

The most popular meeting, by far, was the final meeting where retailers and manurfacturers came together to hear Peggy O’Mara of Mothering Magazine talk about the rise and fall and rise again of the cloth diaper industry since the 1970’s. Of course, hearing that O’Mara has been a long-time supporter of cloth diapering was met with thunderous applause. Her speech was inspiring to all of us who work to see more bottoms in cloth and fewer disposables in landfills.

After O’Mara’s speech she volunteered to sign up Mothering Magazine as the first official member of the RDIA.

Since the Real Diaper Association is so new, the web site is still rudimentary. You can see get contact information for the new association at www.realdiaperindustry.org. The RDIA welcomes retailers, manufacturers, diaper services and affiliated groups such as diaper directories.