Diapers and Grocery Bags? How About Greening Your Girly-bits?

More green, reusable products hit the market every day, and that is certainly a promising trend. It is especially noticeable here in California, where even the snotty "soccer moms" in their gas guzzlers are piling their teams' Gatorade and chips into canvas totes. Biodegradable dish soaps and laundry detergent are becoming more widely available as demand for them increases. The most hardcore of the green movement are buying biodegradable, chlorine-free diapers. Some are even purchasing cloth diapers. (I must note, however, that while cloth diapers are more cost efficient and seem green on the surface, the soap and water used laundering them makes virtually no less of an environmental impact than disposables.)

Almost every food item is now being offered in an organic version. We buy toilet paper and bank checks made from recycled paper. The world of casual disposal is coming to an end. One product, however, seems immune to criticism: feminine hygiene products. Whether this is out of fear of the wrath of bleeding, grumpy women or from sheer squeamishness, very few people seem willing to take aim at this wasteful product and its vast contribution to gorging landfills.

I believe the environmental impact of feminine hygiene products may also be ignored because it is generally off the radar. Many people purchase reusable grocery bags and the like because other people can see them. Nobody knows what is going on under your skirt, so there is little societal pressure to make greener choices. Several products are available that will greatly reduce, if not virtually eradicate, the environmental impact of menstruation. Until I began researching this topic, I had never even heard of some of them.

The typical feminine hygiene products are pads or tampons. Pads are, obviously, much larger and use more materials. Both products come in cardboard boxes. Each individual item inside the box is wrapped in a plastic liner. The tampons usually come with an "applicator." When all is said and done, there is a ton of unnecessary packaging that must be discarded in addition to the product itself. This, in and of itself, could be easily reduced. As a matter of fact, some companies seem to use the excess packaging as a selling point, offering it in various colors and making the applicators more elaborate. In the past, I have been a fan of the O.B. brand, which uses minimal packaging and is applicator free. Out of all the obvious choices, it is the one with the least environmental impact.

My research uncovered a myriad of other choices, some of which appear cleaner than tampons, not linked to T.S.S., and almost completely without waste. The Diva Cup is reusable for up to a year. There are also washable sponge tampons, chlorine free biodegradable pads and tampons, and the usual washable cloth pads from days of yore. Of all these products, the reusable cup seems to be the most sensible and sanitary, and some of the silicon versions claim to last as long as ten years.

I would love to see someone high profile actually have the balls to start pushing these greener products. If I were the first lady, I would be all over this, if for no other reason than to make Republican legislators squirm.