We are celebrating environmenstrual week and we are inviting all individuals, groups and community to take part in conversation about periods and the environment
From 19th – 25th October, we are celebrating environmenstrual week. This week is dedicated is to amplify the messaging about healthy, eco-friendly periods for people, periods and the planet. This is the week for everybody, whether you have period or not.
The Inconvenient truth about Periods : Toxic and Plastic
For decades, plastic has been used as a predominant materials for mainstream period products, from he wrapping to the plastic applicators. It is has been estimated that up to 90 percent of a menstrual pads and 6 percent of a tampon is plastic.
Disposable pads as we know them today were actually developed from aBenjamin Franklin invention created to help stop wounded soldiers from bleeding. While it took some time for them to take off, bleeding into a synthetic product wrapped in plastic soon became the norm, and thus began a practice that brought convenience wrapped in environmental wastefulness
The average woman will use 9,600 tampons or pads over forty years of menstruation. According to Organic Cup, tampons, pads and panty liners along with their packaging generate over 200,000 tonnes of waste per year, with the average woman throwing away 125–150kg of tampons, pads and applicators in their lifetime.
It’s not just plastic that is the issue. mainstream periods and menstruation products are made from cotton sprayed with chemical pesticides, which not only have a detrimental effects on workers producing cotton, but pesticide residues have been found in period and menstruation products. In addition, the raw ingredient (wood pulp) used to make pads, is bleached white to remove its natural brown colour. This ‘purification’ process can generate dioxin, which is one of the most highly toxic and persistent chemical known and has been linked to reproductive disorders and cancer.
As we continue to live in a climate change crisis where our waste plays a huge role in the destruction of our earth’s natural resources, we need to ask ourselves: are we being ethical with our periods?
Environmenstrual Week
Environmenstrual week is happening from 19th – 25th October. This week is dedicated to help lead a revolution for healthy eco-friendly periods and menstruation products. Environmenstrual week is for everyone – whether you have periods or not.
How Can We More Ethical ?
While working our ways into a more ethical and sustainable lifestyle is one that everyone seem to be doing these days, for us females and anyone with a uterus, there one extra area that we have to think about if we rally want to fully optimise our own ethical and sustainability.
Our monthly friend visiting. The red devil. The dreaded period !
To start, sustainable living is not always about being 100% perfect but it’s about 100% of people trying to improve in even the smallest ways.
When it comes to that horrible time of the month, you can start by exploring several options to make your period less wasteful but more comfortable, natural and ethical. Here are few simple steps :
1. Celebrate our body & reclaim positive conversation about periods and menstruations
In 2016 Clue conducted a survey with over 90,000 people in 190 countries which discovered over 5,000 euphemisms for the word period. Periods have become so much of a taboo that we look for any way to say we’re bleeding without using the word itself. Many euphemisms come charged with negative connotations of violence or disgrace. Even period product adverts avoid being blatant about what the products are for.
It is time to reclaim the menstruation conversation and truly celebrate our bodies for what they do. A woman shouldn’t be shamed for talking about her period, not should a little girl be scared about it. Instead, we need to be able to openly talk about menstruation without feeling a need to hide behind euphemisms.
2. Equal access of education about period and menstruation
Our education system, inevitable, sets the standards and tone for future conversation about periods. The girls and boys shouldn’t be separated and sent into different rooms. By separating girls and boys, they immediately imply that talking about periods publicly is a taboo, hence should only happen in small intimate circles of girls.
It’s time to make periods and menstruation topics accessible for boys too. They need to know not only how the internal process of a period, but also the range of more ethical products that available and how these products work.
3. Educate ourselves about wide range of more ethical period products
I know firsthand that it’s not easy switching from something you’ve used habitually for years to putting an unfamiliar object into your body. However, there are wide range of more ethical period products that we can can use to make periods more comfortable, pleasant, and less wasteful.
So if you are on board for trying out more ethical, comfortable, less wasteful and healthier products, check out these six options below :
if you prefer pads…
here are some great alternatives to conventional plastic pads :
If you prefer tampons …
here are your top sustainable picks :
- Reusable organic cotton pads
- Reusable period underwear
- Biodegradable organic cotton pads
- Menstrual cup
- Reusable menstrual disc
- Reusable sea sponge
Have you given any of these ethical and less wasteful periods products a try ? share your experience below.
Let’s end plastics in period products and invest in a healthier body and plant.
Also Read :
Ready to make a switch to ethical product and keen to know about the cup effects, read our firsthand experience here
