It was a taboo to talk about periods and for men to buy sanitary napkins in public, still it’s a taboo in some parts of the country, but there is a great development in increasing the menstrual awareness among people.

 In India, sanitary pads market in India is valued at around usd500 million in FY2021 which shows the increase in usage of sanitary pads and chance of increasing production to meet demand and tap on the market. 

But while we were trying to spread awareness of menstrual hygiene, we were also nurturing a potential threat to the environment, i.e. waste generated due to inappropriate sanitary pads disposal.

Menstruation is a process in women which involves periodic discharge of blood and mucosal tissue from uterus. Occurs mostly every month and usually lasts for 2 to 3 days from puberty to menopause.

Issues:

  1. Disposed sanitary pads generally take around 400 to 500 years to decomposenaturally as 90% of the sanitary pads produced around the world are made of plastic.
  2. Most of the sanitary napkins comprises of super absorbent polymers which don’t decompose and are responsible for soil and water pollution. These also affects the ecosystem and wildlife as these inject toxin in food chain
  3. Most this waste fills the dump yards in the country and leaves us with the of waste management.
  4. Around 40% of the sanitary waste in landfills somehow finds its way into water bodies which will have serious impact on our health. The harmful chemicals and hazardous plastic is released into the environment.

Solutions:

Though we cannot find the solution of this problem and eradicate it, still we can reduce it to the maximum extent by following means and methods:

  • Creating awareness among both the rural and urban areas of the country. The major focus should be on youth and students as they are the future and have capability of changing the society and bringing sustainable menstrual hygiene.
  • The most effective method to dispose sanitary pads is to use incinerators which are mostly available in urban areas and more central incinerating facilities should be provided in urban areas and manual incinerators like the electric ones should be available in rural areas.
  • The environmental friendly/ organic sanitary pads should be encouraged by the people.
  • Reusable menstrual cups can be used to reduce the amount of waste produced (only if the person is comfortable with it)

Name: ShivaRam