Average women consume between 12,000 to 16,000 tampons and pads during her lifetime, including both disposables and reusable pads that attach securely to underwear crotch pieces with absorbent pads that can be washed for reuse.
Cloth menstrual products may be more costly to purchase and clean, but they have the potential to last years, thus cutting waste and costs associated with disposal of disposable alternatives.
1. Reduced Environmental Impact
Disposable pads and tampons create massive amounts of waste, draining natural resources such as cotton and wood while producing significant carbon emissions. Reusable alternatives, such as menstrual cups and cloth pads, produce significantly less waste; however their manufacturing process still consumes energy and water resources, with transport to storefronts also emitting carbon emissions.
Reducing our environmental impact is important, and switching to reusables is an easy and impactful way to do just that. An individual using a five year kit instead of 12,000 single use tampons could significantly lower her environmental footprint – saving 187 pounds over their lifetime in waste reduction! That is truly impressive considering just how many disposable tampons and pads are tossed annually!
2. Save Money
Women who switch to reusable menstrual products will save a substantial amount of money over their lifetime and avoid adding thousands of disposable pads to landfills.
Participants reported various barriers to using reusable menstrual products, including cost, hygiene concerns, learning curve, discomfort or leakage issues and difficulty changing outside the home – this latter factor being particularly significant when living with financial insecurity or poverty; these were further compounded when purchasing expensive reusables.
Reusable menstrual cups or cloth pads do not require a significant upfront investment. A high-quality menstrual cup or cloth pad will last a lifetime and pay for itself after just a few cycles; there are even ways to make reusables more affordable; for instance, Dame offers low-income women free cups through its crowdfunding campaign.
3. Reduced Risk of Leakage
Women, girls and people who menstruate must have access to safe, effective and cost-effective menstrual products. Without accessing such items, millions of girls and women around the world may use unsafe materials like old cloth or bits of mattress during their period – something which may have both short- and long-term adverse health impacts.
When participants were asked to select the top three features of reusable menstrual products, comfort and protection from leakage ranked highly across all groups. Cost, confidence using the product and ease of changing were also highlighted as essential features.
This study’s findings provide a valid tool to evaluate the quality of reusable menstrual products, creating a platform for their wider acceptance as an equitable, sustainable alternative to disposable options. Discover more here.
4. Reduced Health Risks
Millions of women, girls and people who menstruate do not have access to safe menstrual products that are both short- and long-term beneficial to their health. Instead they often resort to using unhygienic materials such as old cloth or mattress bits which can cause serious skin conditions as well as be unsanitary and unhealthy for long term health reasons.
They could also opt for disposable pads and tampons with harmful chemicals that penetrate their bodies, leading to irritation, dryness, or worsening period cramps.
Studies show that reusable menstrual products are healthier for your skin and body than disposable ones, reducing leakage risk while simultaneously saving money in the long run. Furthermore, purchasing these one-time investments provides long-term cost savings.
5. Increased Confidence
Millions of girls and women worldwide turn to unhygienic materials – such as old cloth or parts of mattress – to manage their periods, often making for uncomfortable and undignified solutions that lack absorbency compared to disposable pads or tampons.
Reusable menstrual products offer significant cost-cutting and timesaving advantages: their one-off costs (or, when donated by charity, are free) can last for 10 years and don’t need replenishing regularly – drastically reducing expenses while eliminating wasteful replacement needs.
Young women also report feeling more confident when using reusable pads over disposables, possibly because they are less visible and made from skin-friendly, toxin-free materials.
