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The Real Nappy Information Service

What's the Issue With SanPro?


Have you ever considered just how many single use sanitary pads or tampons the typical menstruating woman will use in a life time?

The answer is around 15,000!

Now, that’s a huge cost to your purse, this could cost you up to £2000 depending on the brand of products and how often you change them!

And it’s a huge cost to the environment too, if they don’t end up in landfill around 4 million pads and tampons get flushed down the loo every year in the UK (even though they are not designed for this!) Ending up washed up on the shores of our beautiful British beaches!

In 2013 the Marine Conservation Society held a beach clean across 96.7km of UK coast line. They collected 428 tampons and tampon applicators per 4.4km and 1291 sanitary pads, panty liners and backing strips per 13.3km!

Do we even know what single use products are made from?

Have a look on the side of a pack of pads or tampons, not much, if anything at all is listed in the ingredients! With these products going in or next to such a sensitive and intimate part of your body, this is something to worry about!

Tampons are made from either cotton or a mix of cotton and rayon (chemically processed wood pulp), sanitary pads also contain wood pulp. In both cases the ingredients are processed and bleached to make a whiter than white, but not a sterile product. Even cotton, a seemingly natural product, brings with it issues surrounding the use of large amounts of pesticides.

Women’s Voices for the Earth have reported that single use pads contain; Styrene (also used in car tires), Acetone (also used in nail polish remover), Chloromethane (also used in petroleum refining) and Chloroethane (also used in Styrofoam). This is bad for bother women’s bodies and the environment!

What’s the alternative?

There is a large variety of reusable products. These are made out of single or very few ingredients, and it’s easy to find out what they are!

Your options are:

Cloth Sanitary Pads

Menstrual Cups

Reusable Tampons

We believe that women should know about all the different products available, not just what they see on the supermarket shelf. So we have teamed up 23 supporters from the reusable menstrual products industry to get the message out there!

We are building up the information on this website telling you all about the different products available, why not help us spread the word by sharing this on your social media?

We also have 45 women across the UK armed with a demo kits who are going out and about to nappuccinos, sling meets, breast feeding groups, having friends over for coffee and talking at their collages. They will be using their kits to talk face to face to their friends and peers about the products available and hopefully start to break taboos linked to talking about periods!



Got a question?

Have a look at our FAQ page!