Words by City to Sea

City to Sea is an award-winning not-for-profit, campaigning to stop plastic pollution at source. They’re tackling the single-use plastic items found most commonly on our beaches and in our oceans by providing practical, solutions-focused initiatives and advocating reduce and reuse over single-use.

City to Sea’s Plastic Free Periods campaign aims to prevent plastic pollution from our periods by mainstreaming reusable and plastic-free disposable products and raising awareness that no period products should be flushed.

As our awareness and understanding of the climate and ecological emergencies grow, more and more community groups, charities and individuals are working to equip younger generations to live sustainably. Education that explores nature connection, body literacy, emotional intelligence, mindfulness, compassion and inclusivity, personal and community empowerment and global issues all have crucial roles to play in our journey to creating a new way of living together.

With a challenge of this scale it’s crucial that we understand the root causes of our unsustainable behaviours, which are largely rooted in social injustice and inequality. In 2017 a coalition of scientists, economists, policymakers, researchers, and business people published Project Drawdown, ranking the top 80 ways to tackle climate change. Many people were surprised to see that Number 6 on this list was Educating Girls, and number 7 was Family Planning. 

For International Women’s Day, four women are speaking out about the most controversial form of plastic pollution – the plastic that comes from our period products.

Currently a staggering 4.3 billion tampons, period pads and liners are used in the UK every year with most of them containing single-use plastic in some form. Research shows that disposable menstrual pads sold by most big brands contain around the same amount of plastic as 5 carrier bags. Tampons also contain a plastic weave, which is hidden from citizens. An estimated 1.5 – 2 billion of these are flushed in the UK every year, creating sewer blockages and ending up as pollution on our beaches or in our ocean.

Menstrual products are now the fifth most common item found on Europe’s beaches - more widespread than single-use coffee cups, cutlery, straws or even plastic bags.

Historical and cultural taboos and stigma around menstruation have prevented people from receiving proper education about what is happening in their bodies. People are unaware of what’s normal, what products they can use to help manage their periods and how those products might impact the environment.

The toxic combination of societal shame and lack-of-education has created a growing environmental problem.

Cal Major, world record breaking stand-up paddle-boarder, Yvette Curtis, surfer and founder of an all-girls surf club, Libby Bowles, adventurer and marine conservationist and Natalie Fee, founder of environmental campaigning organisation City to Sea, are joining forces to raise awareness and empower women to make informed choices about the period products that they use.

“I was shocked by the amount of plastic pollution that I encountered during my paddle boarding expedition across the UK. Switching to reusable period products is one of the simplest ways we women can minimise our plastic footprint.” ~ Cal Major, world-record breaking stand-up paddle-boarder

Natalie Fee, founder of City to Sea who run the campaign Plastic Free Periods said “We wouldn’t choose to eat plastic, so why are we putting it inside our bodies every month? It’s time we shone a light on the hidden plastic in period products, and let women make informed choices about how to live healthy, sustainable lives that don't cost the earth. Or the oceans.”

But the tide is turning on both plastic pollution and period stigma. There are now a huge number of sustainable products helping people across the globe to turn the tide on plastic pollution from periods. These products include organic/plastic-free disposable tampons, pads and liners; reusable tampon applicators; menstrual cups, period pants and washable pads. Although cups, period pants and reusable pads are more expensive than disposable products to buy up front, huge savings can be made in the long term. In fact, over someone’s menstruating lifetime they can save up to 94% of what they would have spent on disposables by switching to reusables.

Amazing things are happening enabling and empowering women to choose what they put in their bodies

• City to Sea campaigned for the Department for Education to offer plastic-free products to schools as part of their period poverty scheme, and now schools can order organic tampons and pads, reusable pads and menstrual cups for students.

• This isn’t the only work being done with young people – City to Sea, Wen, Hey Girls, and Brook are all are all working to make sure up to date period education reaches students and community groups. City to Sea’s free school program Rethink Periods will have reached more than 31,000 students in the last 6 months alone.

• The Environmenstrual Coalition – a group of more than 60 organisations working to improve availability and access of sustainable menstrual products in the UK have successfully worked with both Aldi and Sainsburys to ditch single-use plastic from their tampon applicators.

• The Hey Girls’ Pads for Dads campaign engaged fathers with the subject of periods, providing a guide to help start the conversation with their daughters

• Over the past year, more than 8 new plastic-free products have been introduced across 5 major high-street retailers.

• In the past 5 years, google searches for ‘menstrual cup’ have increased by 300%.

Plastic Free Periods coordinator Jasmine Tribe is very excited with the progress so far;“It’s been amazing to see this movement snowball in the last few years. Not only are we empowering women to take care of their bodies and the planet, we are also working collaboratively and across sectors, creating strong bonds and community” she said. “We can only have environmental justice when we have social justice, and for social justice to manifest we need gender equality.”

Judging by the campaign successes in this space over the last 5 years, it appears that plastic-free periods may be well on their way to becoming ‘the norm’. In an unexpected turn of events, plastic pollution could be the catalyst for breaking down taboos that have stopped people openly discussing periods for centuries. 

The views and opinions expressed by guest contributors do not necessarily reflect the opinions of Ocean Oculus.