As mentioned in a previous blog post, periods are an issue relating to wealth. You may have heard the term ‘Period Poverty’ and how that even in the UK, a supposedly wealthy country, thousands of girls and women cannot afford sanitary products. However, an issue that is raising in awareness in recent years is the waste side of periods - the contribution of sanitary products to landfill. Period products of course have to be disposed of in a safe, hygienic way, however where they end up is the same as the plastic straws and plastic bags that in the UK, many of us have begun to despise.
Through the government creating new policies and businesses striving to be leaders of change, the waste we create as individuals and as a society is a topic prominent in the news. However, with half of the population throwing away approximately 11,000 disposable pads and/or tampons in a lifetime, this industry has a huge potential to help women become more environmentally friendly by changing their products and values. In the end, much like we have little control over the thousands of pounds we spend on period products in a lifetime, we also have little control of our environmental impact. The majority of period products contain plastic and are packaged in plastic. In fact, most pads are around 90% plastic. Plastic is not biodegradable and will remain in the environment for up to 1000 years, whether this be in landfill or in the water system. In 2010, a UK beach clean found an average of 23 sanitary pads and 9 tampon applicators per kilometre of coastline. Scale this up to the total 12,429km of UK coastline and the issue becomes clearer. Scale this up globally and the amount of plastic pollution becomes unfathomable. India in particular is a country that has issues with waste, and as the base for our project, it is important we help the women of India, without adding to the plastic pollution. Due to rapid urbanisation, Indian cities do not have the infrastructure to collect, recycle or dispose of the 62 million tonnes of municipal solid waste generated annually. To prevent our period products becoming part of this issue, we are designing the pads to be biodegradable, therefore allowing the women to take power over their periods, without compromising their local environment. Although this issue is a great one, times seems to be changing and the future is starting to look greener. Some of these changes can be seen on the shelves of our supermarkets with more options of cardboard applicators, biodegradable pads and period pants. More women are also choosing to use reusable menstrual cups, reducing their period plastic waste almost completely. This topic is building momentum with the BBC reporting an increase of Google searches for ‘menstrual cups’ increasing fourfold between 2010 and 2018, and retailers reporting sales growing at double digit rates over the last 10 years. The environmental debate will only increase in importance going into the future as our population continues to increase and our landfills simultaneously fill up. It it therefore important that we reduce our footprint in all areas of life that we can, and we should not let periods stop us from doing so. Written by Racheal Brangan References: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-45667020 https://www.organicup.com/blog/powerful-environmental-reasons-to-switch-to-a-menstrual-cup/ https://www.downtoearth.org.in/blog/waste/india-s-challenges-in-waste-management-56753
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