Howling at the Moon!

I have been thinking about taking yet another step in my eco-friendly mission. What is this step you may ask. Well, if you are a woman, you most likely use disposable pads, tampons and/or panty liners for about a week each month. I'm always trying to be green as I can be and encourage others to be as well. Goodness knows that this planet needs some help! So, I got to thinking about how much waste I create every month just from disposable menstrual products and it's a LOT when you consider how many years the average woman menstruates. I had heard about reusable cloth pads in a self sufficient magazine and I have since been researching the different companies that make them. Many of the products that I came across just didn't have the 'right' shape, some had plastic or nylon backing and some of the companies didn't have what I wanted in stock.

I finally discovered GladRags and I am so glad that I did. The shape is similar to disposables and they even have wings that snap together on the under side of the underwear. They come in several different super-cute prints as well as organic cotton. After reading almost everything on the website I finally went for it. I bought the Deluxe Pad Kit in the Zebra print, a few extra night pads and a set of the organic cotton panty liners. Of course I just had to get the beautiful Queen Bee carrying case and a few other items for carrying for my investment. (You can be eco-friendly and stylish!)

I have to say, that I was so excited to receive my order. I know, being excited over getting some pads in the mail may seem overboard but there's more... These pads are so darn cute and so unbelievably soft and comfortable. AND, to top it off, they are very easy to clean and they are extremely absorbent. What more could I ask for? The main reason that I decided to make the switch from disposables to reusables is to reduce the waste that I create but I didn't expect to actually look forward to my period (yes, GladRags are that comfy). I also just saved myself a ton of money by making a small investment now that will pay off again and again.

So, if you are considering or haven't yet considered, please think about making the switch from disposables to reusables. You will save so much waste and toxic chemicals from entering the environment and you'll save money doing it.

Below is an excerpt from the GladRag site with some interesting facts about conventional products.

Using a product one time is not enough.  Think of all the tampons and pads you use each time you menstruate and then think about how many times you will menstruate in your lifetime.
If you menstruate 340 times in your lifetime, using 20 disposables per period, that amounts to 6800 pads or tampons thrown away. Now consider all the women using disposables in the world. If 500 million women use disposables throughout their lifetime, that's 3.4 trillion pads or tampons thrown away! Not only is landfill space taken up, but these materials cannot be reused and are no longer part of the resources available to us.
Then, of course, there's all that packaging, (wrappers, boxes, applicators) that are also thrown away, all the garbage bags used, all the diesel fuel used to truck those products to the stores week in and week out.