Benefits: Planet
It is no secret that contemporary menstrual care creates a lot of waste: boxes, individual wrappers, applicators, and of course the soiled products themselves. What an amazing advancement the menstrual cup, and other reusable products, have become for tackling waste!
Planet
The average American produces just under five pounds of trash per day. That comes out to nearly 1,800 pounds of trash each year, and of course menstrual hygiene is looped up in all of that waste. What a difference we could make by taking out something produced so frequently! Like I said before, I have cut a lot of the things that produce trash in my life out. But by far my favorite has been menstrual care because it seems so frivolously wasteful. Plastic has had a nearly 50% increase in the amount of trash it creates since 2014, going from near 8% of our yearly trash to 12%. If you are like me and plastic pollution is what initially sparked your interest in sustainable menstrual care, then this is a perfect reason to make the switch.
So how many thousands of these products are used and then thrown away, only to be perpetually replaced for a majority of a woman's life? Literal thousands, 11,000 on the more conservative end of estimates. That trash all goes somewhere, and like we are all keenly aware, plastic has a lifespan that far outlives the users or even its intended use. And let's not forget that these products don't break down fully because of the chemicals in them, even if they are made with cotton. Only pure, organic cotton has the ability to break down, but this is still a single use item that needs to be replaced. Why choose this infinite cycle of throwing away products for most of our adult lives, when such a beneficial alternative is available to us?