Ok let’s talk about periods or more specifically the waste caused by the pads and tampons we use each month. In the US it is estimated that 12 billion pads and 7 billion tampons are discarded each year. In the UK it is thought that we flush away 1.5 to 2 billion menstrual items each year. Most of this ends up in landfill. According to the national geographic each of us uses somewhere between 5 and 15 thousand pads and tampons. In the past women made do with fabric strips or whatever was around that was absorbent.
Unfortunately, this usually meant women ended up with bulky and uncomfortable pieces of material (even soft strips of bark) close to their nether regions. My mum told me her grandma would have a bag of rags that she used for her periods this was the norm. Cut to modern day and tampons and sanitary pads are designed to be disposable so that they are both convenient and also mean you have to constantly restock and purchase on a monthly basis.
So it was with this in mind that I began investigating reusable sanitary pads. They have definitely come a long way from the old pieces of rag material used in the past. Nowadays they are brightly coloured with many funky designs and are either made of absorbent cotton (good for light days) or microfiber (suitable for light or heavier days). I did a road test on several samples and I remained quite impressed with the results no leaks on even the heavier days and the comfort level was reasonable. Admittedly I would not use them if I was about to put a slinky little black dress and would probably use a tampon in that case but overall I was quite happy. When I spoke to women about using them the jury was out on whether it was a good idea or just plain yuk! I was sad to discover that there was still a big stigma attached to what I considered something quite natural and nothing to be ashamed of. My elder sister said she just wanted to forget about her periods and did not want to be reminded of it by using a reusable pad and others saw it as women going back 1oo years! But others I spoke to were quite open to the idea and said they would consider using them. So what is your opinion would you dare to use a reusable sanitary pad?
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