Green England Articles Washable Menstrual Products

Washable Menstrual Products

Feminine Wear was launched in September 2008 as an online website selling environmentally friendly alternatives to disposable sanitary products.

An average woman uses 12,000 tampons and sanitary towels in her lifetime. Disposable tampons and sanitary towels are damaging to the environment and your health, as well as costing women a fortune every month.

Disposables fill up the landfill sites and block drains and toilets around the country. Tampons and pads are frequently washed up on our beaches and found littering the streets. The Marine Conservation Society carry out their beachwatch survey every year and publish reports on the amount of waste washed up on UK beaches. The 2007 Beachwatch report stated that 6.1% of the waste collected was ‘sewage related debris’, which included sanitary towels, plastic backing strips, tampons and tampon applicators.

In a landfill site a tampon will take about 6 months to biodegrade and the plastic backing from a sanitary towel will last indefinitely. Women are becoming increasingly aware of the health risks associated with disposable menstrual products. Tampons have been linked to Toxic Shock

Syndrome for many years and as a result women are switching to menstrual cups. These are small funnel shaped pieces of medical grade silicone, which are designed to be reused. Menstrual cups catch the blood as it flows from the womb rather than absorbing it. The cup is simply

emptied and replaced.

Tampons and disposable pads have caused many concerns as women become aware of the chemicals that are used in their manufacture. Dioxins, rayon, bleaches and genetically modified cotton have all been linked to whiter than white “hygienic” products. Just because a product is

white it does not mean that it is pure and healthy.

Women using washable pads report fewer incidences of thrush and irritation and lose the sweaty, sticky feeling associated with disposables.

Feminine Wear stock washable pads from 14 different suppliers, including:

Lunapads, Wemoon, ImseVimse, Ella’s House, Minki and MoonTimes. They also stock 3 different brands of Sea sponge tampons and 6 different brands

of Menstrual Cups, including the Mooncup, Lunette Cup and Diva Cup.

Reusing your menstrual products makes perfect sense. Once you have made the initial purchase there are no further costs as reusable pads will

last for many years.

Choosing the right menstrual product is like going into a lingerie shop and choosing the right underwear. The pads on the Feminine Wear website are available in different materials, shapes, styles and patterns – women are

spoilt for choice. Customers enjoy treating themselves to washable menstrual products and are actually starting to look forward to their

periods!

Website: www.femininewear.co.uk

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