When it comes to periods, we often find ourselves being so damn preoccupied with our own often-immensely-ill-timed bleeding to focus on anything other than just getting through the week without having a screaming match with our mum or worrying about bleeding through our jeans. Again. That’s why we haven’t really ever stopped to think about what happens to all our tampons and pads after we use them.
Whether you stuff them in the bin or flush them down the loo (Side note: please don’t do that, it can block your toilet and leave you with an awkward overflow situation in your bathroom), those period products don’t just disappear.
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Instead, they end up in landfill and in the ocean, clogging up the environment and causing whole heaps of damage.
But how many tampons and pads actually end up there? Well, quite a bloody lot. Excuse the pun.
Girls start menstruating between the ages of 11 and 45 years old, with each period lasting three to seven days (on average). This means, in total, a woman will spend about six-and-a-half years on their period.
…We’ll pause while that shock sets in.
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When women are tackling their period armed with pads and tampons (AKA disposable period products), then the average lady will use between 11,000 and 17,000 tampons in their lifetime.
In weight terms, that’s 140kg of tampons. Around the same weight as a panda bear, 47 billion grains of sand or 44,800 tea bags.
And that’s only for ONE PERSON. So times that by half the world’s population and you get a number that’s so big, we don’t even know how to say it out loud.
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So what can you do if you want to trade in your pads and tampons to try your hand at saving the world?
Well, luckily for you, there are HEAPS of options out there – including one you can find right here on this very website.
RED by Modibodi offer a range of underwear that can have you tossing your pads and tampons for good because you can wear these undies with nothing else. Yup, you read that right. You can just bleed straight into these undies without using anything else – all while keeping mess, stain and stink free.
That means the added bonus of not having to awkwardly unwrap your pad or tampon in the loo, trying to be as quiet as possible. WIN.
So what are you waiting for? Reap all the benefits and save the world all in one, girl.
