Main fundraiser photo

End Period Poverty with Zero Waste

Donation protected
Did you know that menstrual pads are made up of about 90% plastic?  Tampons, pads and panty liners along with their packaging and individual wrapping generate more than 200,000 tons of waste per year, and they all contain plastic. Close to 20 billion sanitary napkins, tampons and applicators are dumped into landfills every year in North America alone. Over the course of a lifetime, a person who menstruates is predicted to throw away roughly 400 pounds of packaging from menstrual products. These harmful plastics often end up in landfills, sewer systems and waterways. Disposable sanitary pads take about 500-800 years to decompose. Standard period products are problematic because many of them are made using single-use plastics and conventional cotton. There’s a huge carbon footprint that goes into making these products, and then they get thrown on the ground, washed into rivers, or eaten by fish. The impact of this waste is such that environmental groups are asking the Canadian government to include tampons in its ban on single-use plastics, scheduled to take effect in 2021.   A Life Cycle Assessment of tampons conducted by the Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm, found that the largest impact on global warming was caused by the processing of LDPE (low-density polyethylene, a thermoplastic made from the monomer ethylene) used in tampon applicators as well as in the plastic back-strip of a sanitary napkin requiring high amounts of fossil fuel generated energy. A year’s worth of a typical feminine hygiene product leaves a carbon footprint of 5.3 kg CO2 equivalents.   For every person that makes the switch to eco-friendly menstrual products, that is about 150kg of plastic waste removed from the planet. However, environmentally friendly menstrual products are not always the most cost efficient. If we can convert at least 1 woman from single-use plastic products to reusable products, such as menstrual panties or menstrual cups, we can save our planet from about 13,500 tampons, pads & liners that would be filling up our landfills and polluting our oceans.   To make matters worse, many girls don't have access to the products they need to manage their periods. It can lead to missing school, confidence-building activities, and other developmental experiences. This can limit a girl’s potential and opportunities far beyond puberty. In the U.S., one in five girls have missed school because they didn’t have access to proper hygienic period products.   All donations will go towards sending reusable menstrual products to girls in need to help end period poverty and aid them in making the switch to fight climate change.   #EndPeriodPoverty #MakeTheSwitch

Organizer

Rachelle Alexander
Organizer
Livermore, CA

Your easy, powerful, and trusted home for help

  • Easy

    Donate quickly and easily.

  • Powerful

    Send help right to the people and causes you care about.

  • Trusted

    Your donation is protected by the  GoFundMe Giving Guarantee.