zerowaste

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Discussing ways to reduce waste and build community!

Celebrate thrift as a virtue, talk about creative ways to make do, or show off how you reused something!

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DIY Menstrual Pads - cut down on waste and save money (lemmynsfw.com)

submitted 3 days ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

19 comments fedilink hide all child comments

Not my website! Just a cool thing I encountered. I no longer have periods, but when I did, my flow was incredibly heavy and I spent a lot of money on pads (and of course threw away hundreds of them). I know reusable pads aren't an option for everybody, but they're definitely a great way to reduce waste! Of course, another good option would be buying menstrual underwear etc, but as someone who sews I thought I'd share this for other people who sew <3

(Also you can do cute patterns!)

A few fun facts:

Cotton cloth pads smell better because they allow moisture to evaporate (rather than it being trapped in by plastic)
You can wash them by hand or just rinse them to throw in with the rest of your clothes
Research estimates that people who menstruate use about 11,400 pads in their lifetime

Hope this is helpful for someone!

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[–] [email protected] 5 points 3 days ago (7 children)

Sorry for my ignorance (gay cis dude, I don’t do a lot of interacting with menstruation), but would you expect these to stain? Like is this the type of thing you’d buy/make once and then use forever, or is it more reusable in the short term then replace? My understanding was that blood is a pain to get out of clothes, but I assume the people making these are a lot more educated than I am on the topic lol.

These seem really exciting if people who can use them are happy with them and they’re reusable tbh, cuz I’ve personally always thought tax dollars should pay for or at least subsidize the cost of pads/tampons/etc for those who need them but am uncomfortable with the idea of the state sponsoring wasteful (like literally in that they create a lot of waste) industries in general. Again this is very much not a subject I have stakes in and my uneducated opinion is of the absolute least concern here lmao, but I’d really appreciate if anyone wants to tell me if this is as great as it sounds

[–] [email protected] 8 points 3 days ago (2 children)

My understanding is they'd likely stain, but they're also likely properly sterilized and cleaned between uses. In the end it's dyed with blood the same way it was died with whatever compound made it the color it was before. The important thing is cleanliness which is preserved despite the color.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 days ago

that's what I was thinking! I wouldn't really care what color my pads are as long as I'm sure that they're clean.

Plus you could make some in black!

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