Menstrual hygiene products have been on the market for about a hundred years now, and have made life convenient and easier for menstruators. At a time when hormonal changes, mood swings, and period cramps can make a person go crazy, and understandably so, menstrual products are at our service, ensuring we don’t have “shameful” accidents such as staining our pants or being anxious about leakage while on our period.

Most of us are used to disposable sanitary pads for the comfort they provide and their inexpensiveness compared to other products. Although they might seem inexpensive at first glance, let’s take the time out to calculate your monthly spending on sanitary napkins, and you will find out they aren’t that pocket friendly as it seems. To add onto that, they are 90% made up of plastic, which is not climate friendly for our homes, and our planet. Also, let’s not forget the occasional rashes and the trouble in disposing of them. They either end up stacking onto the already huge amounts of waste at landfills or are floating away in water bodies. Again, not a pleasant thing for Mother Nature.

So how do we overcome this? While the category has had zero to minimal development for the longest time, sustainable and reusable menstrual hygiene products are slowly and gradually on a rise. One can now opt for a range of products from reusable cloth pads and reusable period panties to menstrual cups and menstrual discs, which are available in the market right now and gaining immense popularity amongst the youth. They are realizing the multiple advantages that going sustainable has. These commodities are hygienic and made with good quality bamboo fiber, GOTS-certified cotton, and medical grade silicone; are super safe and long-lasting and are indisputably easy on the purse in the long run.

On top of that, on the off chance that it needs to be mentioned again, they are eco-friendly and a breath of relief for the environment. Since they are made up of natural materials, such as bamboo fiber, banana fiber, and cotton. These materials are easily biodegradable and easy on the skin as well. Reusable cloth pads and period panties can be washed and reused again and again unlike disposable pads, while a menstrual cup or disc can be cleaned by sterilizing it. These products also have the added benefit of being completely leak-proof and giving you a 100% stain-free and comfortable period along with a non-stressful and carefree time. Also, to think about it, a disposable sanitary pad needs to be changed at least thrice a day, which means a period costs you approximately 18-20 pads. Now imagine 355 million menstruators and the amount of waste that will be generated in a year from just these pads. One can only imagine how much you can save by investing in a menstrual cup. It has a shelf life of 5-7 years! It’s simple maths really, one menstrual cup can replace up to a thousand pads. It is utterly astounding and indeed revolutionary.

So this Environment Health Day, give it a moment’s thought, you no longer have to feel guilty about disposing of plastic waste that will take about 600 years to decompose. But the only reason to adopt these sustainable products is not just that they are a treat for the earth and won’t add to the excess waste, which in itself is motivation enough to consider a change, they are also good for the skin, long-lasting, and come at a bargain. They are efficient, and hygienic and get the job done in a much more environment-friendly way. I swear to you, once you go sustainable, there is no going back!