Around 20 Million sanitary napkins, applicators, or tampons are being dumped each year in the North American landfills and due to their plastic nature they take a lot of time to degrade. And the production of these plastic products requires a lot of fossil fuel energy, which in turn leads to increasing the level of carbon footprint.
Looking at this scenario, Professor Jeff Bates and his team of students from the University of Utah have developed a sustainable feminine maxi pad that is made using the natural products and is comfortable and thin compared to the current products in the market. The researchers have named this sustainable pad as “SHERO Pad,” which has a layer of processed algae due to its high absorbing capacity and another layer of cotton that is then covered using a material used to make the tea bags. This pad breaks down from 45 Days to 6 Months that makes it’s the most comfortable and efficient pad the women can use.
The team of researchers has designed SHERO Pad in such a manner that the first outer layer is made up of raw cotton, which tends to act as a water repellant; second transfer layer of organic cotton has a high water absorbing capacity to pull the liquid released from the outer layer; the third layer is an agarose gel made from brown algae for super-absorbent capacity; and lastly the fourth layer has a corn-based material used for keeping the moisture intact and thwart leakage.
The conventional ones are not only bulky but also non-biodegradable in comparison to this novel creation. The major inspiration for Jeff to come up with this idea is the group of women in Guatemala who have to deal with the less hygienic conditions in terms of feminine wastage. This biodegradable pad has been developed keeping the less privileged or underdeveloped countries in mind and also for the women concerned about environmental issues. The pad is not only cost effective but will soon become commercial in the coming years.
So girls, no more worrying about hygiene or environmental issues as SHERO pads are here now.
