Disposables & Our Environment

Disposable menstrual products pose one of the biggest risks to our environment. If you continue using disposable products, over the course of your lifetime you will have used up to 17,000 pads. That can weigh as much as 300 pounds and it’s enough to fill an entire dump truck. This is all for something we only use for several days.

Because pads release too many toxins when they’re burned, they have to be left in a landfill. But, since they tend to contain plastic, they aren’t biodegradable so they’re left out in the open for about 800 years. Workers in landfills come in contact with Bloodborne Pathogens on a daily basis, and sanitary napkins can add to the list of biohazards especially when they're left out in the open for so long.

Also, even though you’re not supposed to, millions of pads and tampon applicators are flushed down the toilet each day. Those not only clog the pipes, but they end up in the ocean and contribute to over 100,000 marine animals dying each year from consuming plastics.

Works Cited

“Plastic in Our Oceans Is Killing Marine Mammals.”World Wildlife Fund, WWF-Australia, 11 Oct. 2018, www.wwf.org.au/news/blogs/plastic-in-our-oceans-is-killing-marine-mammals#gs.7wcpkp.

Whitaker, Hannah. “How Tampons and Pads Became so Unsustainable.”How Tampons and Pads Became Unsustainable and Filled with Plastic, National Geographic Society, 18 Oct. 2019, www.nationalgeographic.com/environment/2019/09/how-tampons-pads-became-unsustainable-story-of-plastic/.