Here we have a quick look at the economic and environmental costs and benefits of disposable v reusable products.

Economic costs of disposables –

How much would you use? The average span of use is 40 years (age 12 – 52). With 12 cycles per year that is 480 cycles over your life. With 20 – 30 disposables used per cycle, that is roughly 10,000 to 15,000 disposables used in a lifetime.

As each woman has different needs/uses, you can use some of the above figures to estimate your personal economic cost of using disposables. Take how much you spend per month, times that by 12 months, and times that by 40 years – the answer is how much you will roughly spend over your life on disposables (remember that this number will increase over time with inflation).

Economic benefits of sustainable pads –

With cloth pads a good number to start with is 20. On average you would buy 10 pads per decade (to replace old ones and update patterns as tastes change). Over 4 decades you could expect to use about 60 cloth pads.

To see the economic benefits of cloth pads just have a look at our shop. As an example you could find the most expensive pad, and calculate the price of buying 60 of them (with no discounts/specials etc). How does that cost compare to a lifetime of disposables?

Environmental costs of disposables –

The obvious environmental cost of disposables is what gets put in the landfill, and 10,000 – 15,000 products would make quite a pile! Although there is also the environmental costs involved with manufacturing to consider. Manufacturing of disposables is rather toxic; the process releases CFC’s into the atmosphere and produces dioxins which are suspected carcinogens. Disposables are also fossil fuel heavy, with plastic used in the product and packaging. We also need to consider the environment of our body, and the result of putting such manufactured products in close contact.

Environmental benefits of sustainable pads –

Less waste, less pollution, less toxic chemicals produced… these are good for our shared environment. For our personal environment, using cloth pads can potentially decrease flow, period discomfort, and the risk of yeast infection. Without the harmful manufacturing process of disposables, and a better ability to breath, cloth pads are the best choice for working with your body environment.