Seven reasons to switch to plastic free periods

15 July 2019

When David Attenborough tells the UK to stop using single-use plastics, we listen! We are becoming more and more conscious of our plastic footprint and how everyday items that we consume are disposed of. So why should period products be any different?

Organic Mondays

Mondays, is the first 100% plastic free, organic cotton period subscription service offering women plastic free menstrual pads, applicator tampons and panty liners. Mondays has even removed the plastic tear strip from its delivery boxes and made sure the usual plastic backing found on menstrual pads is replaced with a compostable backing, known as Mater-Bi®, which is made from corn starch and is completely biodegradable.

Here, co-founder Nancy Saddington gives seven reasons why we should switch to having plastic free periods:

Save the planet

Plastic doesn’t biodegrade quickly so the plastic in each period product that women use will be around for 450 years. To bring this to life, if Jane Austen had used a disposable pad, it would still be here today! When you put this into context, it’s pretty shocking: Women use an estimated 11,000 disposable period products over the 450 periods they each have in their lifetime. And this is just one woman - so it’s unsurprising to hear that tampons, pads and panty liners amount to more than 200,000 tonnes of waste per year in the UK.

Think of the toxins

As a nation, we are becoming more conscious of the foods we consume, thinking about where it has come from and how it has got to our plate. Traditional period products are not just made of cotton and cellulose as many believe, but rather environmentally harmful polyethylene, polypropylene and superabsorbent polymers that do damage to the planet for hundreds of years and breakdown into micro plastics that eventually enter our food chain. Using a plastic free alternative like Mondays helps in the fight to completely eliminate these toxins from our bodies.

Kinder to our skin

Comfort, that’s what we want when we get our period. Plastic period pads can cause many women to suffer with discomfort and skin irritations and there is also widespread concern about the materials used in traditional tampons, and their manufacturing processes.

Mondays’ plastic free period products are made with organic cotton, a natural material that is grown without pesticides or insecticides and is free of any chemicals, dyes or fragrances. This means it’s much, much kinder to our skin and body than traditional mainstream products found on the supermarket shelves and ultimately much more comfortable, feel the difference!

Do your bit!

“Doing our bit” for the environment is sometimes easier said than done. By making the switch to a plastic free period, you will be saying no to single use plastic every month and that’s a great place to start!

Mondays is a member of the ‘1% for the Planet’ movement, meaning that 1% of all sales from day one are donated to environmental non-profit organisations.

Helping the next generation

Women today have the chance to help the next generation make the right choice. We should be encouraging and introducing this choice of plastic free period products to young girls so they start as they mean to go on.

Introducing daughters, nieces, goddaughters and so on means you are helping them adopt plastic free habits with a product that’s kinder to their skin - hopefully they’ll become more conscious about other single use plastic products they use too.

It’s also vegan!

Health conscious Britons are moving towards veganism and adopting a plant-based diet in order to live a healthier life. Vegan-friendly options are appearing on everything from creams to clothes so it’s no surprise that menstrual products are following suit!

Last but not least it’s easy…so why not?

Women have much more choice today in how and what they buy. We can easily go online and find products that are both better for us and the planet with just the click of a button.

The average woman will spend over 350 hours shopping for period products during her lifetime – in comparison, it takes just four minutes to register for a Mondays’ Box that will be delivered to your door completely plastic free!