Plastic Free Periods

At our 2024 AGM in Coventry, members voted to pass the following mandate:

Townswomen’s Guilds urges HM Government to raise public awareness of the hidden plastic in women’s period and hygiene products, including tampons, sanitary towels and incontinence pads, and to encourage the use of reusable and plastic-free alternatives.

This mandate expands our environmental campaigns by exploring an aspect that people typically don't like to talk about, with concerns regarding both the disposal of sanitary and incontinence products, and the amount of single-use plastics these products contain.

In order to assist discussion, we invited Megan Mitcham of the organisation City to Sea, to talk about the issues and the alternative options that are becoming increasingly available. Megan has kindly shared her presentation slides and script so those who were not there on the day can read what she had to say:

Plastic Free Periods - slides

Plastic Free Periods - speech notes

Taking Action

If you would like to find out more about this issue, and how City to Sea are working to improve awareness of this issue and its possible solutions, here are some links to get you started:

Plastic Free Periods on the City to Sea website

Rethink Periods, a scheme that aims to train teachers and school nurses so that they, in turn, are able to teach students about periods comfortably and accurately.

City to Sea's Youtube Channel which includes a playlist of videos about their Rethink Periods campaign, along with videos relating to their other work.