These days, I’ve realized how simply managing my menstrual cycle can have a negative impact on the environment. Do you ever think about how much waste women produce in their lifetime by using non-reusable menstrual products, such as external and internal pads? Waste from disposable menstrual products can take centuries to decompose (a Forbes article states that traditional sanitary pads take about 500 years to disintegrate). And we know how much choosing a sustainable lifestyle means creating consumption habits that have a minimal impact on ecosystems: a study cited by the company Natracare, which produces totally biodegradable sanitary towels, highlights that traditional ones are made up of 90% plastic (2.4gr), the equivalent of 4 shopping bags per package.
A further “spy” came to light in my head then Intimate, a brand known for its sustainable products, which on the occasion of the World Earth Day 2021 has seen fit to activate a special calculator that allows each woman to find out the amount of waste and the estimated cost resulting from her use of non-reusable menstrual products. In practice, by entering a few simple data, the Greentimin calculator allows you to measure the waste resulting from the management of your menstrual cycle, also suggesting possible alternative solutions.
I wanted to test it, so – by entering my date of birth, the number of annual menstrual cycles and the average length of each individual cycle – I discovered that I had produced up to now 22.8 kg of garbage, waste that has added to those that already inexorably pollute our planet. Not only: I spent more than 4,670.68 euros for the purchase of menstrual products and according to the predictions of the computer, at this rate, in my lifetime I will throw away more than 11,000 disposable menstrual products! The figures, in fact, make us think.
“Knowing that you are producing over 10 kg of non-compostable material in your life can seem disturbing,” he comments Alessandra Bitelli, woman empowering coach. “Especially if you know you can easily avoid it. It is about becoming aware of how a small personal change can positively affect the environment that belongs to everyone. An important change that starts at home and school and develops more among young people who can easily understand its usefulness and effectiveness. A change of perspective that replaces the sense of guilt with “I have the power to keep the world cleaner”».
The personal change to which the coach refers is what should lead more and more women to replace the use of disposable pads with reusable and low environmental impact accessories. Menstrual cups and absorbent panties (to which the absorbent swimwear), but also 100% ecological and biodegradable disposable pads and tampons are the alternative solutions proposed for greater protection of the environment and, at the same time, a more economical and green management of the menstrual flow.
If they seem to you hypotheses that are still too far away – or xenophilia which will not be taken into account in Italy – you may soon change your mind.
Because the results of an online survey conducted by the same Intimate out of 1442 participants recorded a very high percentage (82%) of women who say they started paying more attention to sustainability during the pandemic. Not only: one in two (58%), again during the pandemic, decided to replace disposable menstrual products with menstrual cups. Not least the fact that, when it comes to choosing, 86% of all survey respondents say they prefer brands that pay attention to sustainability.
«An important clarification must be made especially for the new generations who think about the planet more than the previous ones. They are more sensitive and less lazy in this respect », Bitelli adds« because they are more educated to pay attention to the future of the planet as a place in which they will have to live. Global thinking has facilitated this process in which these young people tend to broaden the perspective outside the enclosure in which they live ».
While waiting for more and more women to rediscover an ecological conscience also as regards the management of their intimate sphere, some data reported in the Journal of the Institution on Environmental Sciences solicit our attention with 1.4 million sanitary pads, 2.5 million tampons and 700,000 panty liners dumped every day, in the United Kingdom alone, in the toilets and consequently destined to pollute seas and beaches.
In Italy, according to a 2013 study conducted by the company Matter, the 3% of total waste consists of absorbent personal care products, including in addition to feminine pads also those for incontinence and baby diapers. This percentage is equivalent to approx 900 thousand tons per year out of a total of non-recoverable residual waste of 32 million tons of waste. Starting from these alarming data, in 2015 Fater Smart tested a total recycling plant for absorbent products in Lovadina di Spresiano (TV): the innovative structure would be able to obtain, from the recycling of sanitary napkins and diapers, almost 75 kg of plastic to be used in new productions (street furniture, objects, etc.) e more than 225 kg of organic-cellulosic material that can be used for the production of cartons for industrial packaging, come fertilizer able to restore nutrients to impoverished soils and other applications with high added value. A decisive ecological choice, which earned the company the award “Sustainable Development” a Ecomondo 2018. A case, hopefully not unique, in which the Planet Earth thanks.
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