Let’s Do The Simple Menstruation Math

Every month, I use an average of 5 sanitary napkins per day for four days. For the next 4 to 5 days after my period, I use disposable pantyliners and consume about 3 per day.

A completely unrelated image of a Flesh-colored towel, with green paint

My 190 mm regular pad weigh about 6 grams while my 140 mm pantyliners weigh about 4 grams. Calculating my consumption for a year, it turns out that I generating 2.16 kilograms of non-biodegradable waste per year!

In the Philippines, women prefer sanitary napkins over tampons which are bigger, with respect to volume and weight, per piece. According to Philippine Statistics Authority, there’s about 26.9 million Filipino woman aged 14 to 45 years old. If each woman uses sanitary napkins and has about the same usage rate as mine, then we ladies, are generating about 58,104,000 kilograms of non-biodegradable waste per year! And these vaginal wastes take about 500 years to decompose. The waste is cumulative. That doesn’t even include the next generations of women that will start to use sanitary napkins even way before the first generation of menstrual wastes start to decompose. Take note, that’s only in the Philippines which is only about 1.4% of the world’s population. How much more is generated by women all over the world? How much much more will be generated if we factor-in the population growth rate?

Image Source

A Little Step for Bigger Change

Meg, Founder of Amuma Cebu (Image taken without permission... I don't care)

This is my best friend Meg. She is a Chemical Engineer that works for the Department of Environment and Natural Resources – Environmental Management Bureau. Her job is to make sure all Industrial companies in Region 7 is compliant to environmental standards. She's one of those pipz who reported the poor ambient quality of Boracay beach water and basically to blame why the island is now closed. (Seriously, Boracay has to undergo some serious rehabilitation). She is one of those people in the government who is truly sincere and passionate about their job and I really appreciate that about her.

My All-time Favorite Photo of Meg and I

Ever since, she’s been concerned with how humans impact the environment. Being a Pollution Control Officer myself, I understand Meg’s frustrations. It's hard to pin point the cause of the problem. We cannot blame it on industries, we cannot blame it on the government. We cannot blame it on the rich people and we cannot blame it on the informal settlers.

Because the truth is, pollution is caused by individuals who have names and addresses. Each one of us is a contributor to the pollution problem that we are facing today. One or two persons cannot cause a major change in this country.

MY FRIENDS. They have absolutely nothing to do with this post but they'll be really jealous If I don't include them here

However, Meg is not disheartened by this thought. She believes that instead of complaining how irresponsible Filipinos are in managing their waste, we should do something and start within ourselves. What I love about her is that she takes her own little steps to reduce her daily environmental footprints. She brings her own metal chopsticks (coz she is so Chinese), refuses to use single-use plastic water bottles, brings her own stainless steel straw and lastly, she refuses to contribute to the growing number of non-biodegradable waste from sanitary napkins. (Guys she even attempted to shower less often. I, her very good friend, has managed to convince her to not compromise hygiene in her sincere environmental intentions)

Amuma: For Greener Vaginas

Amuma Cebu

Meg just started Amuma Cebu. Amuma is a beautiful Cebuano word that means nurture – which ideally should be our purpose in this planet. Amuma sells menstrual pads and pantyliners made of cloth. They’re reusable and you’re going to have to wash them.

Look how adorable they are! (Image from Amuma Cebu)

Considering how much waste we are generating, personally I wouldn’t really mind the extra effort of washing bloody liners. She also sells biodegradable toothbrush and stainless steel straws – also very dispensable plastic commodities.

BEHOLD: The Menstrual Cup

If you are not comfortable with the idea of washing blood-stained cloth pads, Amuma also sells menstrual cup. It’s made of sterilizable medical grade silicone that seals the vagina and catches the fluid that comes out of the uterus. The stem is used for insertion and removal.

It is completely reusable up to 10 years. Imagine how many non-disposable wastes you’re saving? To even convince you, here’s the financial advantage of switching to menstrual cups, considering that a single cup can last you 10 years:

But...EWwW!!!

Yeah, that’s what I thought too. Having to remove a cup filled with uterus fluid is bloody gross. But Meg does it and she totally was able to adjust to it in no time – So why can’t I? Yes, changes may cause some inconvenience. But if we live in a society that is not willing to adapt inconveniences for greater good, we are totally going nowhere but mass extinction.

I can't wait for my menstrual cups and yellow polka dots cloth pantyliners from Amuma-Cebu to arrive next week :)

How about you? In your own ways, how do you reduce your environmental footprint?