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What We Will Cover
What do we mean by female hygiene products?
Why are these products important in the context of sustainability?
How are female hygiene products typically made and disposed?
What are some alternative sustainable female hygiene products?
What can our listeners do to make their use of these products more sustainable?
More on our expert guests today--the co-founders of Dame
Stay tuned for an exclusive offer for SD listeners before the interview
Those aren’t our only guests today… introduce Anna and Shannon. We’ve wanted them to join the show anyway, but particularly for this episode for what are probably obvious reasons.
What do we mean by female hygiene products?
First off, as we get started, we want to note that while we refer to “women” in this episode as those who experience periods, we want to acknowledge that NOT every person who has a period identifies as a woman. We respect the spectrum of gender identities out there and want to express our support for the LGBTQIA community.
Typically, feminine hygiene products can be defined as personal care products used by women to manage menstruation and general vaginal health. The most commonly thought of include tampons, panty liners, and pads.
So this definition is pretty straight-forward, but this is actually an important, complex, and to be honest, taboo subject for many people. It can be pretty uncomfortable for some folks to discuss, but… get over it!
Why are these products important in the context of sustainability?
First, let’s talk scale.
See AlsoWhich feminine products you should use — and which to avoid - Mayo Clinic PressFeminine Hygiene Products | Smithsonian InstitutionGlobal report reveals major gaps in menstrual health and hygiene in schoolsFeminine Hygiene ProductsAs of June 2017, women made up 49.6% of the global population. With approximately 7.8 BILLION, yes billion, people on earth, that means that approximately 3.9 BILLION women will be in need of feminine hygiene products during their lifetimes.
These 3.9 billion women will have on average 13 cycles a year for 37 years, and will spend more than 6 years of their lives menstruating.
The massive scale of this topic is pretty evident. Jay and I tried to pick out a single product that we have to use nearly as often and truthfully had a pretty tough time. We found that there are things we use pretty regularly like contact solution and mouthwash, but then realized that these were more “luxury items” that wouldn’t significantly alter our day-to-day if we had to go without them.
Next, let’s talk waste.
Historically, feminine hygiene products have been largely single use. The average woman will discard 14,000 tampons in her lifetime, contributing 300 lbs of waste from packaging, applicators, and tampons.
That’s per woman! Multiply that by our 3.76 Billion women and you can easily see how this becomes a problem for our oceans and landfills.
Another article estimates that over 100 billion period products are disposed of every year, with nearly all containing plastics.
This single use mentality is not without its environmental footprint, of course. The manufacturing of disposable menstrual hygiene products (an almost $6 billion industry) generates a total carbon footprint of about 15 million tons of greenhouse gas emissions annually, according to the United Nations Environment Program. That’s the emissions equivalent of driving over 3 million cars on the road for a year. Yikes.
So feminine hygiene products are carbon intensive, include plastics, and are largely single use. That’s not a good combo.
Of course, beyond the sheer amount and carbon footprint of these products and the obvious link to female genital health, they are also critical to female educational development.
In fact, all over the world, embarrassment and cultural shame around menstruation keep women out of school because they cannot afford to purchase period products.
In the US specifically, the State of the Period report from Thinx and Period found that one in five teenage girls here in the US experiences period poverty, which refers to “the inadequate access to menstrual hygiene tools and education, including but not limited to sanitary products, washing facilities, and waste management”
This is primarily driven by lack of access and lack of income with the most at risk populations being the homeless and students.
In the US, and historically all around the globe, what’s known as the “tampon tax” also contributes to period poverty. The tampon tax is a catchy phrase that refers to state sales taxes applied to menstrual products. These taxes on period products range from 5-10%.
This tampon tax can directly contribute to gender inequity, especially when compared to the taxation of men’s health related products such as grooming products and erectile dysfunction medication. In 35 US states, period products are considered non-essential, and therefore taxed as such, while men’s items like Viagra skate by tax free.
Inaccessibility to menstrual products due to low socioeconomic status is also exacerbated by the fact that feminine hygiene products are not covered by food stamps in the US and are often inaccessible in the prison system.
Check out this John Oliver clip on prison labor where he explains how too many women in prison work jobs for basically nothing per hour just to earn enough to pay the co-pay to see a doctor to sign off that they actually need the number of pads that they require.
How are female hygiene products typically made and disposed?
In the United States, manufacturers aren’t required to disclose ingredients in tampons and pads since they’re considered medical devices by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.
Unfortunately some of the ingredients that we do know about aren’t pretty. Tampons and pads are often made of non-biodegradable and potentially toxic ingredients, presenting both a personal and environmental health challenge. These ingredients can include synthetic plastics, glues, and petrochemical additives.
Further questionable ingredients include non-organic cotton and rayon that may contain pesticides. This is particularly problematic given their proximity to sensitive tissues while in use. This has rightfully become an increasing concern for many women.
So we’ve got products used every day around the world that have a large footprint to produce and contain questionable inputs. We next have to ask, what happens when you’re done with them? Proper disposal is directly into the trash, right?
Yes, trash. Flushing is a huge no- no.
Wait, so what’s wrong with flushing? Isn’t it just the same as toilet paper?
Not quite: Flushed tampons, pads, applicators and other items can end up clogging sewer pipes, which can cause untreated wastewater to overflow. This wastewater can eventually make its way to creeks, streams and rivers.
In addition to wastewater issues, flushing creates the need for sewer repairs and drives up costs of water consumption. Flushing can also pollute the ocean; In one day, Ocean Conservation volunteers collected 27,938 used tampons and applicators on our world’s beaches.
Yet, flushing is unfortunately a rather frequent occurrence. Nearly half of all menstruators in the U.K. say they flush their tampons. About 2.5 million tampons, 1.4 million sanitary napkins and 700,000 panty liners are flushed down the toilet in the U.K. every single day.
So both the creation and disposal of these items are creating massive environmental issues. What options do we have to be more sustainable?
Sustainable alternative female hygiene products
There are some alternatives trying to disrupt the linear system of traditional female hygiene products. These include organic cotton tampons, biodegradable bags for disposal, washable period panties, and a reusable applicator designed by Dame, our guests later on in this show.
In addition to some of these newer innovations, there has also been a return to the more traditional menstrual cup, which have been around since the 1930s.
A menstrual cup is a reusable, typically silicone, device that, similar to a tampon, is used to collect discharge, however, instead of being thrown away, the period discharge can be flushed or rinsed out with water and the cup is washed and reused. The company that makes the world’s most successful menstrual cup, the DivaCup, has grown 639% in the past five years.
Why? Menstrual cups are not only environmentally sustainable but also financially sustainable. The global average price is $23 for a menstrual cup whereas the average box of 36 tampons (1 months supply) is $7. Since one cup can last between 2-4 years (with some claiming they can even last up to 10), when you do the math, menstrual cups are just 5% of the cost of tampons over a 10 year period.
Another sustainability benefit from switching to the menstrual cup may be reduced water consumption.
In two studies, researchers found that menstrual cups actually reduced the amount of water that people needed to manage their periods. Less leakage with a well designed cup means that people didn't need to wash stained clothing as much. And women who use cloth as a reusable pad also need a larger supply of water for washing relative to cups.
What our listeners can do
For all of our listeners, guys, that includes you, you can consider joining the over 200,000 others that have signed a change.org petition to make all menstrual products plastic free.
You can also write your lawmakers telling them you support legislation to disclose ingredients in these products. The Menstrual Products Right to Know Act has been languishing in Congress since 2017. It “requires menstrual products, such as menstrual cups, menstrual pads, tampons, and therapeutic vaginal douche apparatuses, to include a list of ingredients on the label.”
While we’re on the topic of outreach, another option is to contact big female hygiene companies directly to demand change in ingredient transparency and plastic use - companies like P&G, Johnson & Johnson, Kimberly Clark, and others.
If you are feeling even more civic responsibility, consider supporting legislation eliminating “tampon taxes” which effectively make feminine hygiene products less affordable and therefore contribute to social and environmental issues (when items are more expensive, those in need are less likely to consider sustainable attributes).
Generally, we can normalize discussion of periods to support menstrual equity as well. While in recent years it has become less taboo, with a short film Period. End of Sentence winning an Oscar this year, it still remains an uncomfortable subject for a lot of people. It is hard to change something we can’t talk about.
What types of feminine hygiene products were they taught about in sex-ed? Was it comprehensive? If not, how did they learn about alternatives?
How can we change the narratives in schools?
If you use period products:
Regardless of which products you choose to use, make sure to dispose of your products the right way.
Consider trying these alternative products, we just mentioned! 17% of women have already made the switch to reusable alternatives and studies show 73% of women like them.
In fact: SD listeners can get 15% off a Dame reusable applicator with code JAYSCOTT15!
More on our expert guests today--the co-founders of Dame
Celia Pool and Alec Mills started Dame in 2017 on the heels of their first feminine hygiene startup, Sanitary Owl. Though Sanitary Owl was successful, one day the sheer volume of plastics they were using in their products finally struck them. This led them to start Dame, which sells, among other products reusable applicators and organic tampons.
Dame got off the ground with kickstarter support from over 5,000 people in 53 countries. It is now included in 3 nationwide supermarket listings in the UK and ships to over 50 countries across the world.
