Contributed by Brianda Hickey

For the month of November I will be viviendo a zero waste life and gracing your computer screens with my witty humor each week. 

It has officially been two weeks of me living zero waste! YAY! This week I got a special little present from my body… I understand my period in all its glory is not a subject everyone wants to read about, but as a person who menstruates and is trying to live zero waste it is a huge issue. Therefore, this week’s blog post will be about one of the most socially stigmatized subjects: the period.

Waste and periods have historically gone hand in hand. Compared to cloth diapers (equivalent to cloth pads), throwaway diapers use 20 times rawer materials, three times more energy, and twice as much water. In total, they use 60 times more waste. With about 20 billion pads, tampons and applicators being sent to North American landfills annually, the waste production is astronomical. To conceptualize these facts even further, according to the Center for Marine Conservation, over 170,000 tampon applicators were collected along US coastal areas between 1998 and 1999. I don’t even want to touch tampon applicators once they have been inside me, let alone have them float around in our lovely earth’s oceans.

Putting aside the wild amount of waste menstrual products produce, most of the products you find in the store don’t even tell you what they are made of! Have you ever thought about that? Most products recommend to remove tampons after eight hours of use. So what are we actually putting in our body for eight hours of a day?! If you use tampons during the day for a four-day long period, what kind of chemicals are entering your body for 64 hours each month?

These were the thoughts rolling around in my head when I woke up to my little surprise yesterday. I was completely out of tampons and pads. What was I to do?! My mom had given me a menstrual cup (a fantastic zero waste, healthy option) for Christmas last year, but I didn’t want to deal with the whole hassle of disinfecting it before I had my coffee. So I decided to stop at Duane Reade before work. At Duane Reade I found a half an aisle dedicated to menstrual products, but not one of them told me what they were made of. I thought “Fine. Duane Reade might be behind in the times, but I am sure I can find another grocery store with chemical-free options.” I went to work and googled three more grocery stores/pharmacies. Not one of them had cotton products. At this point I am ranting to my coworkers about the frustrations of trying to meet my basic bodily needs and how ridiculous my situation was. In the end, I ended up ordering online 100% cotton pads and non-applicator tampons and going to the NYU health center for free pads in the meantime. I realize cotton pads are still not the best for the environment, but realistically I cannot afford to drop $50 on 5 cloth pads. For those of you who want to treat your body and the earth better, I encourage you to purchase 100% cotton pads and non-applicator 100% cotton tampons. Most importantly, don’t be afraid to start a conversation about your period and your thoughts! Words matter.  

Learn more on the benefits of switching to more sustainable menstruation products.

About Brianda Hickey

I am majoring in Applied Psychology within Steinhardt and want to pursue a PhD in Clinical Psychology. My love for sustainability did not sprout from a single awakening but the slow acquisition of knowledge. As an EcoRep, I get to pursue my sustainable passions and take action, even if it is in my small way.