Why Eco-Friendly Period Products?
Most menstruators are scared and confused till date about switching to eco-friendly menstrual products because of -
- Cost factor - Eco-friendly menstrual products may cost higher than the pack of their regular sanitary pad
- Confusion on how to use menstrual cup or reusable products
- Unavailability of Eco-friendly products around their locality
Today we bring you some dact checks about Eco-friendly menstrual products!
1. You contribute to considerable waste:
It is good to change the pad after 6 to 8 hours, even on low flow day. It will mean an average menstruator will use at least 15 pads for five days. It means a total of 180 pads a year and 7200 pads in 40 years (which is approximately the number of years a woman menstruates).
Most such regular pads are made of 90% of plastic. When you throw away the used ones, they can make up to a size of a small hill. The size of this hill will be larger if you use regular panty liners too. This waste takes 500 to 800 years to decompose. On burning them, they release toxins into air, water and soil. In contrast, eco-friendly menstrual products such as biodegradable disposable pads and tampons decompose in less than a year.
2. Your regular sanitary pads are more expensive
Let’s do the math. The cost of a packet of the cheapest regular pad comes to around Rs. 40. Assuming the price remains the same for another 40 years, you will be spending around Rs. 960 each year and Rs. 38400 during your lifetime.
Now, do you know a high-quality menstrual cup will cost you around Rs. 1000? You can use this menstrual cup for almost up to 10 years. So, you can see that menstrual cups will be much cheaper.
3. They are easy to use
You can use biodegradable and cloth pads in the same manner as your regular pads. It will take a minute for you to learn how to use cloth pads. You may take one or two period cycles to learn to insert and pull out the menstrual cup and biodegradable tampon. There are many tutorials available on YouTube, and you can always DM us on Instagram. With a menstrual cup, you will feel a lot more comfortable while using the loo, while sleeping and you may also sometimes feel as if you are not on your periods. It can be worn for up to 12 hours.
4. Regular pads have impacts on women’s health
If you do not see any issues today, it does not mean tomorrow you will not or if they already have made unannounced impacts on your health. From itching, rashes, fungal infections, the list keeps growing. There is the use of carcinogens, endocrine disruptors and surface irritants in these synthetic and plastic-based sanitary pads. Due to which a menstruator may face allergies, congenital disabilities and cervical cancer, etc.
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By Payal Kulshreshtha
Read more of my work here!
