Did you know that each one of us will use around 11,000 disposable period products in our menstruating life? Multiply that by the global menstruating population of 1,8 billion. The result? An unfathomably huge environmental impact.

But your period doesn’t have to cost the Earth. The facts and figures may seem overwhelming, but one simple switch is creating a whole wave of change. Switching to the Mooncup menstrual cup is one simple way to benefit the environment and drastically reduce your footprint.

Read on to discover 10 reasons why the Mooncup is environmentally-friendly. It’s not only better for the planet, it’s better for you too!

10 environmental reasons to switch to the Mooncup menstrual cup

1. Menstrual cups are the most environmentally friendly period product

We’re all aware of the need to reduce our impact on this planet. But with such a strong focus on lifestyle choices such as our diet and the way we travel, the environmental impact of small items like menstrual products can often go overlooked.

Disposable tampons and pads are the most used period products. According to a UN sponsored report, 49 billion single-use period products are used every year in the EU.

The same report compared reusable period product options, such as pads, pants and period cups. The conclusion was that menstrual cups are the most environmentally-friendly way to manage your menstrual flow.

In a year of usage, the environmental impact of a reusable menstrual cup is only 1.5% of the impact of disposable period products. And it only costs around 10% of the price.

The reusable Mooncup® menstrual cup contains no plastics or toxins and lasts for years and years. Switching to the Mooncup will save you money while saving the planet, one period at a time.

You can work out exactly how much money you could save by making the switch, with our Mooncup savings calculator.

2. The Mooncup is made in the UK, for our world

The Mooncup® is the original silicone menstrual cup. Born in Brighton in 2002, we are proud pioneers of the plastic-free periods revolution, bringing reusables to the mainstream.

UN SDG12

The Mooncup is made right here in the UK. As well as supporting local manufacturing, by making the Mooncup® close to home we ensure sustainable manufacturing practices and minimal environmental impact. We are advocates for responsible production and strive, in turn, to foster responsible consumption, as set out by the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal number 12.

By making the switch to the Mooncup®, you’ll be supporting an ethical business and shopping local.

3. The Mooncup® is vegan & cruelty-free

Period products aren’t often high up on the hit list when shifting to a vegan lifestyle. However, conventional tampons and pads couldn’t be much less vegan if they tried…

UN SDG14

Some tampons have been tested on animals, mainly on baboons and rabbits. Aside from the unfortunate truth of animal testing, most tampons and pads contain non-organic cotton. The production of conventional cotton is riddled with pesticides and herbicides, harmful to both nature and wildlife.

Whether you throw your tampons and pads down the loo, or get rid of them correctly, they can still wangle their way into water courses from landfill. They then break down into minute microplastic particles that can end up in the stomachs of marine creatures.

The Mooncup menstrual cup has been registered by the Vegan Society since 2010. This indicates that it contains no animal ingredients and has never been tested on animals. The Mooncup is also free from bleaches, dyes or toxins, and helps to reduce our impact on life below water, as set out by the UN Sustainable Development Goal 14.

4. The Mooncup® is zero waste

An astonishing 200,000 tonnes of sanitary waste are sent to landfills in the UK, every single year.

The Mooncup menstrual cup is one sustainable swap that is guaranteed to drastically reduce the waste you create. You’ll soon notice the change by the emptiness of your bathroom bin!

Many Mooncup users also say that switching to the Mooncup marked the start of their zero-waste journey.

If cleaned and cared for correctly, the reusable Mooncup is designed to last for years. Over five years, using the Mooncup menstrual cup will save you, and our planet, 1430 tampons and/or pads!

All Mooncup packaging is plastic free and recyclable. Its unbleached, organic cotton storage bag is manufactured in a carbon neutral factory. They plant a tree for every 1,000 units produced.

A period cup is no good if it ends up being wasted. This is one of the reasons why we offer a unique Advice Service run by medical health professionals. There’s no such thing as TMI – all our Mooncup® advisors are medically trained and used to work as midwives or nurses.

5. The Mooncup is free from chemicals

Non-organic cotton, used in most tampons and pads, is responsible for one sixth of all pesticides used globally. Tampons and pads are also bleached to enhance their white, sterile look.

The Mooncup® is made solely from platinum cured, medical grade silicone. Silicone is a product of silica – a natural mineral and one of the most abundant on earth.

Unlike various menstrual cup brands, we have also chosen not to add any food colourings or pigments to the Mooncup for ethical, health and environmental reasons.

The Mooncup is free from dyes, perfumes, BPA, phthalates, bleaches and toxins – a healthier option that will benefit you and our planet.

6. The Mooncup is plastic free

You’ll likely have heard a lot of talk around plastic bottles, straws, earbuds and the like. But throwaway tampons and pads are also a huge contributor to the global plastic problem.

Tampons and pads can contain up to 90% plastic. That’s 90% of the product itself and doesn’t include the additional plastic that makes up the wrappers, applicators and backing strips.

Nearly 90% of single use pads and tampons end up in landfill, where the plastic in them takes up to 500 years to break down. While the super heavy tampon lays there decomposing, the plastic in it breaks down into microplastics and releases chemicals. These seep into our waterways, polluting the environment and harming wildlife.

The Mooncup® (product and packaging) is 100% plastic free.

7. We support the period education programme Rethink Periods

When you join the Mooncup® gang, you join the plastic-free periods revolution! We are proud to support the Plastic Free Periods and Rethink Periods programmes run by the environmental charity City to Sea. They combine period education with environmental awareness, through their campaign.

The Plastic Free Periods campaign has reached over 3 million people to date. Their period education programme Rethink Periods has also trained more than 1,000 teachers and school nurses across the UK.

8. We are empowering women – because social justice is key to environmental justice

As a company run by women, we at Mooncup Ltd have been shifting the conversation and breaking the taboo around periods for two decades.

We have committed to fighting period poverty in the UK and globally. To date, over 20,000 people with periods have received a free Mooncup menstrual cup through the charity and period equality projects we have participated in.

Centuries of stigma, shame, miseducation and sexism around menstruation aren’t just causing period poverty. They’re preventing people from receiving proper education about what is happening in their bodies. People are unaware of what’s normal, which products they can use to help manage their periods and how those products might impact the environment.

The empowerment and education of women and girls are some of the greatest tools out there for reducing emissions. Access to family planning and education helps to reduce unplanned pregnancies. It improves health prospects for both parents and children and lessens the pressure on resources.

Menstrual health is a key part of reproductive education and is an inherent part of the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals: goal 3 for health and well-being; goal 4 for education; goal 5 for gender equality; and goal 6 for clean water and sanitation for everyone.

9. We need to protect our beaches from period plastic

There’s been a fair amount of uproar about wet wipes, but we mustn’t forget period products from the ‘unflushables’ list! If flushed down the loo, tampons and pads block sewers, cause flooding, and pollute our fresh and marine waters.

Despite an increase in awareness, 1.5 billion period products are still flushed down the toilet in the UK every year.

And period products rank number five on the list of most common items found on beaches across Europe.

By switching from disposables to the Mooncup, you’ll be joining over 2 million other #RealMooncupUsers in the fight against period plastic pollution.

10. Mooncup® users have saved over 3 billion tampons & pads from the waste stream

Thanks to people like you switching to the Mooncup, we’ve saved an incredible 3 billion (and counting…) single-use period products from the waste stream!

That’s a whopping 36 million kilograms of period waste that would have otherwise ended up on our beaches, in our oceans or in a landfill. The equivalent to the weight of 180 blue whales or 120,000 bottlenose dolphins. Enough waste to fill 44 Olympic size swimming pools or 1.8 million household waste bins!

Not only is our planet better off, but ditching disposable tampons and pads has also saved Mooncup® users over £435 million over the past 20 years. That’s 136 million periods taken care of.

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One small ripple, multiplied by millions, creates a huge wave of change.