There are many little tweaks to our daily life that we can make to lessen our impact on the environment. If you’ve already got your reusable water bottle and are working on cutting down on your plastic use, you might be curious about other ways to help preserve our earth by making your own changes. Many people are looking for ways they can go zero-waste in their lives, but shifting to a zero-waste period might not have been the first thing you thought of.
It’s true, the zero-waste lifestyle even extends to your period, and how could it not? Tampons and pads are not reusable or recyclable, and with the average woman using about 20 pads or tampons every month, that adds up to 240 per year. Doing a little more math means throughout one’s lifetime, an individual woman throws out between 5,000 and 14,000 tampons or pads. It might not be the most significant environmental issue, but it sure isn’t helping. Luckily you can easily cut that number down to nearly zero with these zero-waste period options.
Menstrual Cup
You might’ve heard of this popular option for zero-waste periods. It’s a small silicone cup that — once you get the hang off application — is super convenient and will make you wonder where it had been all your life. Speaking as a fan of the menstrual cup ourselves, it’s great if you deal with a heavier flow or can’t/won’t get to the bathroom to tend to it often. You can leave a menstrual cup untouched for up to 12 hours.
Female-driven company called Hello Cup. Not only is the cup cute and stylish, but the brand comes with a good cause. To support females around the world, the brand donates 10% of sales of every Hello Clams Cup to One Girl, a non-profit dedicated to harnessing the incredible power of education to drive change for girls and their communities.
Nixit is another great one-size-fits-all solution. The soft, flexible, and suction-free design provides users with a pain-free and safe experience – and has a life span of up to 5 years. They recently did a giveaway of 100 free cups on social and it sold out in 8 minutes!
Cloth Pads
Just because you’re going zero-waste doesn’t mean you have to forsake pads. With cloth pads, you just leave out the whole making-trash part of using traditional pads. They work just like the pads you’re used to except you wash and reuse them.
They come in fun colors and eco-friendly fabrics, like bamboo, so you know you’re giving yourself the finest treatment!
Period Panties
These zero-waste period options are getting a lot of traction lately, probably because of how convenient and easy to use they are. Fans of this option say they often forget they’re wearing period panties because they’re so effective at trapping any moisture. They use a layered combination of unique fabrics meant to pull liquid away from the body and lock it into the panties, so there are no leaks. There’s no learning curb to these, so they make an excellent foray into the world of zero-waste periods.
If you want a pair of your own, Thinx is one of the leading brands providing super cute and comfortable styles for a variety of flows. Heavy flow day? Try the hiphugger with super absorbency, which holds up to four tampons-worth! Lighter days call for airier styles, like the Cheeky pair which holds one tampon-worth.
