Waste of the Day: Too Many Diapers

New parents in California are likely to be inundated with so many free diapers that some will end up in the trash, according to an investigation from CBS News. 

A new two-year, $18.7 million program will provide parents with 400 diapers in newborn size and size 1, which babies outgrow in just a few weeks to a few months.

The program is run by Baby2Baby, a nonprofit whose co-CEO Norah Weinstein is on the board of First Partner Jennifer Siebel Newsom's California Partners Project. Baby2Baby was chosen over other nonprofits that offered more diaper sizes.

Key facts: Gov. Gavin Newsom claimed Baby2Baby was selected through a competitive bidding process. But the state’s contracting database says the contract was “non-competitively bid.” That means even though 15 companies and nonprofits offered to run the program, California was under no legal obligation to choose the one best-suited for the job. 

A clause buried in the state budget allowed the diaper program to skip the normal bidding process and exempted it from oversight by the state contracting watchdog, CBS News reported.

An Oakland nonprofit, SupplyBank.org, told the state it could distribute 49 million diapers in four different sizes. But the state chose Baby2Baby, which will distribute only 40 million diapers in two sizes. SupplyBank also offered to run Phase 2 of the project, which will allow families to purchase low-cost diapers from an online marketplace. Baby2Baby is unable to run Phase 2, so a second contractor will be necessary. 

Experts inside and outside the government warned California about its diaper distribution. Four different nonprofits that applied to run the program said families are more in need of diapers in sizes 4 and up. Records show the California Department of Health Care Access and Information asked Baby2Baby multiple times to offer sizes larger than size 1, but the nonprofit said it would be an “additional logistical challenge.”

Other lawmakers were concerned that the free diapers would be provided to affluent families.

"The idea that we are not providing health care to somebody who desperately needs it, but we're going to be giving diapers to somebody who makes $200,000 and happens to have a birth in a hospital seems really tone deaf in this moment in time," Assemblymember Mia Bonta said at a May 2025 budget hearing. 

Other diaper details are shrouded in secrecy. Baby2Baby’s contract states it will meet monthly with a state Joint Steering Committee whose meetings are explicitly "not open or public meetings." Neither the state nor Baby2Baby can issue a press release about the diapers without the other party’s consent.

Baby2Baby does not put any branding or logos on its diaper boxes to keep costs down. But California decided to put custom state branding on the boxes, increasing the taxpayer cost.

Baby2Baby will not profit from the program. CBS News found no evidence that the Newsom couple influenced the state’s decision to hire Baby2Baby, despite Jennifer Newsom’s ties to Weinstein.

Summary: Parents should only need to focus on changing babies’ diapers, not the state’s procurement mistakes.