Menstrual Waste: Is an Issue of Concern?
Asrafi Bintay Akram ।। Menstruation is a very normal physiological issue in every women’s life but is still considered a secret and shameful matter in Bangladesh. There have been 54 million menstruating adolescents and women here (Sultana, ICDDR’B, 2020). Bangladesh National Hygiene Survey (2018) has revealed that 55% of adolescents and 68% of women use clothes (new and old) during menstruation. It is safe in menstrual hygiene management as long as it is washed with soap and water and dried in the sun. According to the report, only 12% of adolescents and 18% of women re-use properly managed menstrual clothes. The rests have been suffering from various diseases for long using unhygienic clothes. Therefore, experts recommend the use of sanitary napkins as healthy menstrual management (BBC Bangla, 2019).
An average of 36% of females presently use disposable pads (one time use) during menstruation (Hygiene Survey, 2018) which is almost double than before. This is undoubtedly a positive change though proper disposal of these pads is still absent. Thus, there will be a major challenge of waste management in terms of quantity which will eventually impact the environment. Though there is no direct statistics, it can be estimated from different relevant sources that 36% of 54 million women or 1 crore, 94 lakh and 40 thousand women use sanitary pads. Based on the absorbent capacity of a napkin and bleeding, if each female uses one disposable pad in every 8 hours maximum (as per the suggestion of UNICEF,2019), on average 5 days (The society of Obstetricians and Gynecologists of Canada), she uses minimum 9 pads in the first three days of each menstruation. The next couple of days, 4 pads will be used in every 12 hours. Thus, a women uses minimum 13 pads in her menstruation. According to the Indian Solid Waste Management Guide (2016), a woman uses 8 pads in a menstrual cycle whereas Vostrall (2008) in his study opined that a woman needs 11 pads or napkins in her menstruation. Since the Indians have similarities with us, if we estimate 10 pads instead of 13, then minimum 19 crore and 44 lakh pads are used monthly.
Most of the sanitary pads are imported in Bangladesh from India, China and Thailand. Besides, some local organizations produce pads too (Sayeda Akhter, BBC Bangla, 2019). These pads are of cotton and gel types. These are made of polythene shield or plastic. There is no leakage due to plastic around and below the pad so that blood cannot come out. Among the popular napkins in Bangladesh, Senora occupies 65%, Jaya 14%, Whisper 8.05% and Freedom 7% of the market (The Daily Star, 2020). So we selected some cotton and gel pads as samples from a few notable napkins for our research to measure the average weight of plastic in a napkin. With the help of Poland’s ‘Analytical Balance Model AS220. R2’ measuring instrument (a lab instrument that can accurately measure mass up to 220 grams with readability of 0.0001 gram), we found that on average a pad contains minimum 3.2859 grams of plastic which later turns into non-degradable waste. A woman, however, throws 10 pads including 1 packet of a napkin per month. On average, an empty plastic packet of sanitary napkins weights 5.889 grams. Consequently, a woman is generating a total of 38.748 grams of waste monthly. Thus, about 9039 metric tons of menstrual waste is generated every year is equivalent of 2 lakhs, 43 thousands and 723 manas.
Although the logo of ‘BSTI’ or ‘SMC’ is used on the packets of sanitary pads of different brands, prevalent in the market, most of them don’t mention the manufacturing materials. However, it is instructed on each packet that the used pads should be wrapped in paper and thrown into dustbins and it is highly restricted to dispose them into commodes to prevent blockage. From this, it is clear that these commercial sanitary pads do not dissolve in water. Besides, they have a plastic layer that is not degradable in the soil. The experts opine that sanitary pads can be made of 90% plastic in some cases (Sayeda Akhter, BBC Bangla, 2019). Since layers of chemicals and plastics are used to increase the absorption capacity of these pads, there lies a question whether they are healthy and environment friendly.
Bangladesh still has no solid waste management rules. A round table discussion on ‘Urgent Sustainable Waste Management’ was organized by the Prothom Alo in 2019. In this discussion, two types of waste (solid and liquid) were identified. The disposable sanitary napkin is naturally treated as a solid waste (Prothom Alo, 2019 and Solid Waste Management Rules, India). Though sanitary napkin is considered as a textile product to BSTI, the plastic component of it is non degradable. Expert opined that a disposable pad would take 500 years to completely degraded into soil (Anirban Mukherjee, 2017) while others said it would take 800-900 years ( Solid Waste Management Rules, India, 2017). In urban areas, disposable pads are thrown away with household waste into dustbins or in open places (Swahshati Biplob, Feminist Factor, 2020). The Bangladesh National Hygiene Survey 2018 report reveals that 39% of the total households throw their waste into pits or dumps. Besides, 16% of them throw waste into water bodies. The rests are dumped on roadsides, into drains or in forests. For being not perishable, the inorganic waste of napkins starts to accumulate somewhere.
If it is not given importance now, menstrual waste will become a social and environmental problem very soon. We need to think of using compostable sanitary napkins or reusable products instead of market prevalent non compostable ones. If necessary, we need to conduct research on producing ecofriendly and low cost napkins. This is because encouraging the use of safe, ecofriendly sanitary pads to protect women’s reproductive health is just as important as arranging proper disposal system of these pads. If not, the five day waste will be a burden for the earth for 500 to 900 years!
Asrafi Bintay Akram: Assistant Professor, Department of Sociology, Hajee Mohammad Danesh Science and Technology University, Dinajpur
(The views and opinions expressed by the writers are those of their own and do not necessarily reflect the views and opinions of Feminist Factor)
