By Norah Owaraga | Project Leader and Managing Director
Nina Notman in her article “Reduce single-use plastic, period” quotes Ella Daish, founder of the #EndPeriodPlastic campaign as having observed: “It’s plastic hidden in plain sight … Bags, bottles and straws dominate the plastic discussion; we don’t really think about period products. … Disposable period pads contain up to 90% plastic.”
Ladies and gentleman, this was exactly me few months ago. Gosh, for the 40 years that I menstruated, I never ever thought of managing menstruation without single-use disposable pads. Assuming I menstruated on average three days in a month and each day I used four pieces of disposable pads, during my menstruation lifecycle, I generated at least 5,700 pieces of period plastic!
Moreover, researchers, Megan E, Hamson and Nichole Tyson, in their article, “Menstruation: Environmental impact and need for global health equity” assert that “while in a landfill, disposable pads are estimated to take 500 to 800 years to break down, and materials such as plastic never truly biodegrade.”
What a disturbing thought it is for me to know for sure that the thousands of pieces of period plastic that I generated are among millions more generated by other women that are presently choking landfills in Uganda. After all, Uganda does not have the requisite policies and systems for effective safe disposal of used menstrual pads.
Such used pads with menstrual blood are currently mostly being disposed together with other domestic waste into garbage skips; from where it is collected and it ends up in landfills. And that is pretty much how I disposed of mine – together with domestic waste into garbage skips.
No doubt, in Uganda, we are in crisis already. In a month, the estimated 6.6 million menstruating Ugandan women and girls who use disposal pads, 52% of menstruating women in Uganda, generate an estimated 26.4 million pieces of single use non-biodegradable pads, period plastic, containing medical waste. And this harmful waste is mostly ending up in landfills.
Worse more, because of widely prevalent menstruation stigma in Uganda, this huge public health and environmental crisis is not being talked about. It may be too late for me, but it is not too late for millions of other women and girls in Uganda to adopt best practice by reverting to options that generate no or little waste and certainly no period plastic waste. In order to achieve this desired outcome, a good starting point for Uganda is to smash menstruation stigma and let’s talk menstruation and disposal of pads.
We need your help to make a contribution in igniting conversations on menstruation and disposal of pads. Please consider making a donation to enable us, at CPAR Uganda, mentor and train young women in theatre for development and participatory action research so that they may take the lead in their communities to smash menstruation stigma. Thank you.
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