Plastic: we won’t shop with it but we might stick it in our knickers

As of October 2015 plastic bags have a compulsory 5p charge. Fantastic news since some 13 billion plastic carrier bags are freely handed out to UK shoppers every year, much of which goes on to pollute marine life and ecosystems while clogging up landfill. Once in place this bill will have a dramatic impact. But carrier bags are only one of the culprits in our plastic filled, daily routine; what about all those ‘hidden’ plastics in our everyday consumables? Surely it isn’t time to sit back and feel smug about our environmental progress just yet.

Our fixation on carrier bags has allowed countless other plastic based products to linger quietly, unnoticed in the background. Not many people realize that one pack of normal sanitary pads is made from the same amount of plastic as four carrier bags! With the average woman using 17,000 pads in a life-time that adds up to the equivalent of 4,857 plastic carrier bags per woman. There are 30 million women in Great Britain, that’s an awful lot of plastic.

Picture the irony putting a pack of sanitary pads –  the equivalent of four plastic carrier bags – in your reusable shopping bag! The temptation is to throw our arms up in despair and give up trying. What’s the point? But as is the case with many plastic products there is usually a simple plastic free solution and it doesn’t have to be reusable!

Natracare’s pads and panty liners look and work like other products on supermarket shelves but are totally plastic free! Made from only fully certified organic cotton and natural materials, with no chlorine bleaching Natracare is the environmentally sound choice. Natracare Ultra pads are also the first feminine hygiene product in the world to receive an independent, scientifically validated, international Environmental Product Declaration (EPD), which assesses a product’s life-cycle and how it impacts on the environment.

Next time you pick up you reusable shopping bag have a think about what other small change you could make that might just make the world of difference.