While it is important to continue the distribution of disposable menstrual products for people who may not have access to facilities needed to maintain reusable period products, encouraging the use of reusable period products is a more sustainable approach to advancing menstrual equity. 

Regular disposable pads are made up of 90% plastic, generating over 200,000 tonnes of waste in landfills per year and taking an average of 500 years to decompose. Therefore, disposable pads are harmful to the environment. Hence, the use of reusable pads is one of the surefire ways of protecting our planet. 

Our Periods Without Carbon Initiative aims to foster planet-positive solutions to period poverty and help individuals switch to green menstrual hygiene management, which is also safe and can be economically empowering for marginal communities.

Through a series of workshop, we are: 

Providing green education 

Whether it is our Period Dignity Project or Periods Without Carbon Initiative, education is a huge part of what we do. Despite the growing popularity of reusable period products in other parts of the world, they are not well recognised in Nigeria. The privileged few who can afford period products see reusable products as less hygienic compared to their disposable counterparts. 

During Periods Without Carbon workshops, we bust reusable pad myths to get them socially acceptable. We encourage women and girls to embrace reusable menstrual products and, by extension, planet-positive menstrual hygiene management. We educate communities on climate change and the impact of disposable period products on this. In a comprehensive language, we expose them to period (carbon) footprints calculation to get them conscious of the connection between their periods and the climate. 

Raising local ecopreneurs

The global reusable pad market is projected to reach a value of $8.3 billion dollars by 2032. Therefore, the production of reusable period products presents an opportunity for low-income individuals to make an income while meeting the menstrual needs of females in their immediate communities. 

During Periods Without Carbon workshops, we teach individuals how to make reusable pads that require little water for washing, using locally available products. This empowers them to make reusable pads for their personal use and start ecopreneurship producing and selling them at low costs, significantly increasing access. 

Distributing sustainable period products

Reusable pads produced by our team of volunteers during workshops are distributed free of charge. Each reusable pad can last more than three years, covering an average of 39 periods for a menstruating female. This means that beneficiaries of our reusable pads will not have to worry about the recurring cost of single use pads for at least three years.