Green Periods, an international project creating awareness about sustainable menstruation, conducted an educational workshop for staff and students at New Civil Hospital, Surat in India on 31 May, 2022. In a unique collaboration with Civil Hospital and Surat-based organizations Kamakhya, Anubha innovations and Secret Cup, reusable cloth pads and menstrual cups were distributed to 200 staff members and nursing students free of cost.
The event started with a brief yoga session followed by felicitations from Dr. Parul Vadgama - President of IMA, Mr. IK Kadiwala - Vice President, Gujarat State Nursing Association, and Dr. Ketan Naik - RMO. Special thanks to Mr. Prasann Bhat, Dr. Vadgama and Dr. Jigar Desai - Junior Resident for their help organizing this event; and United Builders for their generous sponsorship.
Disposable menstrual products generate about 1 lakh tonne of waste in India every year and have recurring costs that can add up to 1 lakh rupees per person during their menstrual lifetime. Moreover, there can also be negative health implications for some people using disposable pads and tampons. Sustainable menstruation is an eco-friendly, safe, accessible and budget-friendly way to manage periods over the long run.
Zeal Desai, the co-founder of Green Periods says, “We encourage reusable menstrual products that are good for the people, wallet, and the planet. Through outreach of reusable products, menstrual footprint calculator and the Planet Positive Periods educational toolkit, our unique positioning tackles climate change, menstrual stigma, and period poverty.”
Reusable menstrual products are significantly less wasteful and very cost-effective as they can be washed and reused for at least 5 years. Supplementing product distribution with comprehensive education is key to breaking the stigma and changing long-standing behavior in menstrual management practices. To measure the impact of this pilot program, surveys will be conducted and insights will be used to improve future efforts. For more information, visit greenperiods.org and follow @greenperiodsorg, @kamakhya_india, @anubha.innovations, @secretcup_ on Instagram.
Green Periods (www.greenperiods.org) is a social impact project creating awareness about the economic and ecological implications of menstruation. Launching on International Women’s Day.
With the first ever menstrual footprint calculator, a personalized tool to measure menstrual impact, Green Periods highlights the importance of sustainable menstruation.
Every year, 25% of the global menstruating population generates almost 70 billion kilograms of non-biodegradable menstrual waste. Menstruators also spend $21 billion USD yearly that they could have collectively saved by switching to long-lasting reusables. On the other hand, reusable menstrual products could generate less than 1 kg of waste and cost less than $200 over a menstrual lifecycle.
The Green Periods team consists of experienced reusable product menstruators who created a calculator specifically to measure economic and ecological impacts of menstruation. Menstruators answer customized questions and get results about the associated waste and cost. For disposable product users, a graph even shows the amount of money they could make by switching to reusables and investing the savings. Conversely, some sustainable menstruators haven’t spent a penny or sent a single product to the landfill in 10 years. Reduced cramping is just a welcome by-product of reusable menstrual products that tend to be free of chemicals and thus, healthier than disposables.
“We encourage reusable products that are good for the menstruator, their wallet, and the planet”, says Zeal Desai, founder of the startup, with a decade of experience in sustainable menstruation. “Our unique positioning tackles climate change, menstrual stigma, and period poverty. Nobody has done the work to quantify individual menstrual impact and we are here to do that with our menstrual footprint calculator. This Women’s Day, we encourage menstruators pledge to green their periods. This is just a starting point,” she adds.
For those who choose to take the “Green Periods Pledge”, they become part of a growing community with access to exclusive content and education on sustainable menstruation. In the future, Green Periods plans to consolidate the menstrual impact on a live dashboard.
For more information or media queries, please contact:
Zeal Desai
Don’t forget to check out the calculator: https://greenperiods.org/calculator
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