SP0314: Reusable Menstrual Product Initiative

The Menstrual Health Team will occupy a space on campus and hand out menstrual products to all members who menstruate at no cost once a month, without needing to register. Although not new, we only offered products containing plastic or Diva Cups when we ran it last year, so this year we want to revamp it to be more sustainability focused and scaled-up with help from the Sustainability Projects Fund. We will offer single-use products that are biodegradable, chemical-free, and made from organic cotton from a brand called Joni and reusables menstrual cups, pads, and underwear from Period Aisle with our yearly budget provided by student fees.

In doing this, we hope to help menstruators manage their periods and reduce their waste in an accessible way. Over the course of 40 years, reusable menstrual products generate 5,000 times less waste than disposable products. Furthermore, the long-term cost of reusable products is 30 times less than disposables in a lifetime. In order to help those who cannot make the switch to reusable products (due to high initial costs, lack of availability in stores, and lack of access to proper sanitation or privacy), we are looking to the SPF for help.

With the $50,000 from the SPF, we would get over 3,000 reusable Period Aisle products to give out. This will allow us to greatly increase the amount of products we can give out. This would not only reduce our waste and help progress social sustainability by addressing period poverty, it will also be economically sustainable in the long run due to the long-term savings reusable products bring.

Along with giving out free products, we will be doing a social media and education campaign alongside it. Every month will have a different theme, from topics such as period poverty to product gendering. Through this campaign, we hope to educate students about the social sustainability behind giving out free reusable and biodegradable products, as well as encourage people to spread the benefits of reusables through word-of-mouth.

To achieve lasting cultural change, we want to have people transmit the benefits of sustainable products through community means. This will hopefully help normalize reusable and biodegradable products, allowing us to achieve our goal of having 50% of the McGill population that menstruate use sustainable products. If we can help alleviate the stress of something as common as a period, we would be positively benefitting the entire McGill community.