Plastic-Free Periods

“I don’t want to contribute 40 years of garbage to a landfill just to manage something that shouldn’t even be seen as a problem.” — Susannah Enkema

This quote from Enkema really hit home for me. As a woman and mother of 3 young girls, the stigmas around menstruation and the impact it has on the environment is something I end up considering often. I started digging into it more: as women, we spend an average of 3,000 days bleeding.

That equates to roughly 12,000 pads and/or tampons in the bin.

Because the majority of sanitary products sold contain plastic, that's about 120 kg of waste per person sitting in landfill or floating in the ocean. Yikes. 

If, like me you're feeling a little uneasy about the waste we're producing, you're not alone.

More and more women are making the shift towards reusable products. And as is often the case what is better for the planet is often better for our health too.

There is also the cost of purchasing these products every month. Europe wide the consumer spends between 21 euro and 125 euro each year on single use period products, it’s slightly more in Switzerland where on average each tampon here costs roughly 0.12 chf.

But there are other options available and more of us are choosing to make the swap to:

• Reusable Pads
• Reusable period cups
• Period underwear
• Or plastic free disposables

While there are some plastic free disposable options out there, I’ve fallen in love with reusable items. They’re good for you, good for the planet, good for your wallet but also much more convenient than remembering to stock up on disposables.

With reusables, you almost always have them on hand when you need.

We have a selection of reusable period products available at Eco Workshop. I’m happy to talk you through what product would be best suited and we offer a money back guarantee if you are not completely satisfied with your period product purchase.