A serious blotch is caused on the ‘Swachh Bharat Mission‘ as the use and throw nature of sanitary napkins that have plastic as an essential ingredient fills the sewers, landfills, and water bodies. The readily available pads have a long journey, and the problems caused by them are manifold.
Manufacturing
There are five layers in a sanitary napkin:
- The cover stock
- Acquisition and distribution layer
- Absorbent core
- Back sheet
- Siliconised paper
The raw materials required usually include cotton, paper pulp, rayon etc. The key component of the napkin is its absorbent layer; the efficiency of the pad is determined by this layer’s absorbent rate. The wood pulp used in the making is mostly imported, therefore increasing the overall price.
As of 2018, sanitary napkins are not required by law to disclose their ingredients on the packet. In order to make it as leak-proof as possible, a lot of plastic goes into it. Polypropylene or polyethylene is used as the base. ‘Wings’ that attach to the underwear are also made of plastic. All this is yet followed by two layers of plastic packaging. On the brighter side, Prakash Javedkar said that from 2021, manufacturers would be mandated to provide biodegradable bags for disposal of each pad.
Consumption:
After production, sanitary napkins hit the market racks for consumption. According to the National Family Health Survey 2015-2016, roughly 36% menstruators use sanitary napkins. That counts to about 121 million people. A lot of hygiene guidelines need to be kept in mind while using them. Micro-organisms tend to multiply in moist and warm conditions. This can lead to vaginal infections, rashes etc.
These napkins come in direct contact with the vaginal area. Since the napkins are laced with dioxins, petrochemicals, and fragrances, skin may get irritated when it comes in contact with it, and this can act as a direct route to the person’s reproductive organ. Livemint. Imagine if our own sanitary napkins can be so harmful, how hazardous can be working around someone else’s.
Disposal:
Sanitary napkins are classified as biomedical waste due to the presence of blood. However, the debate around it still persists. According to the Solid Waste Management rules of 2016, every waste generator must segregate waste into three types- dry, wet and domestic hazardous waste. But there is no uniform way in which these pads are identifiable. Collectors are then forced to separate them from other wastes, putting them at risk to infections like HIV or hepatitis.
“Every bit of waste is valuable to waste pickers. When it is not identifiable, they do a fine job of opening it, and separating each part into different materials because that is how scrap dealers buy it,” Suchismita Pai, outreach manager at SWaCH told Huffpost India. “Opening sanitary waste is disgusting, and an assault on their dignity and health without any financial gain.”
On top of this, most of the sanitary napkins are non-biodegradable and can take around 600-800 years to decompose. Count the number of sanitary napkins you use in a cycle. That multiplied by 12 and then by 121 million is the total number of pads India alone is consuming.
Menstrual Hygiene Alliance of India states that there are three main concerns to management of on compostable menstrual waste in India-
- Lack of adequate disposal and treatment options leading to unsafe management of the same.
- Many menstruators don’t have access to many waste management options.
- A dearth of access to disposal options may force menstruators to stick to other unhygienic practices.
Some of the ways in which menstrual waste is managed are as follows:
- Incineration: Here the waste is combusted to reduce its volume and is converted into relatively harmless gasses and incombustible solid waste, for example, ash. The risk lies in the fact that if incineration occurs in conditions where waste is not properly segregated or when the temperature is lower than required, toxic gasses may be released. Because of the poor quality of incinerators used in India, health risks are massive.
- Deep burial: Used for non-plastic sanitary napkins, here the material is put in the burial pit and is covered with soil or sand without exposing to open air.
- Burning/flushing: In areas where there is a lack of waste collection facilities, or sometimes out of ignorance too, menstruators flush their used pads or bury them in a pit. The gel and plastic in the pads clog the drainage lines eventually burdening the manual scavengers.
While talking about non-biodegradable waste, Pai said, “They end up in a landfill because they can’t be recycled easily. We are fighting for extended producer responsibility to ensure that they are disposed of properly and to find a way of recycling them.”
India still has no standardised system of menstrual waste management. The only immediate resort to this can be efforts on an individual and community level while waiting for the authorities to put their promises into actions.