Lunapads Blog

Yesterday’s Slate.com “Green Lantern” article questioning the environmental impact of reusable menstrual products begged for more than a brief comment in response. Is making the switch a mere drop in the bucket as far as waste goes, or part of a larger ripple effect?

Fence sitters and skeptics often ask us how green our products really are, along the lines of the so-called diaper “debate”. How green is washing your menstrual pads after all, once you factor in the raw materials, soap, water and energy (not to mention the hassle?) Some prominent green bloggers (including Grist.org’s Umbra Fisk) don’t see the impact of disposable menstrual products as being overly worth fretting about, a position quasi-supported by the Green Lantern herself, Nina Shen Rastogi.

Rastogi starts her post by referencing (from the book Flow) some compelling information about the amount of solid waste generated by disposable pads and tampons (62,415 lbs, or 0.5% of a woman’s gross lifetime landfill contribution) but quickly concludes that there are bigger fish to fry, suggesting that highlighting women’s monthly eco impact may constitute yet another source of shame for women, on top of that typically used to sell the products in the first place - why give women yet another guilt trip?

Rastogi is also quick to dismiss the environmental and health concerns that green feminine hygiene producers often raise about conventional products; namely what the long-term consequences of exposure to dioxin and the host of other chemicals, surfactants, plastics and perfumes that may or may not be present in pads and tampons might be, chlorine bleached or not.

While the US FDA and Health Canada claim that exposure to “trace” amounts of dioxin is safe, the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) looks at the matter differently, asserting that there is no safe or acceptable amount, period.  The bottom line is that nobody actually knows - yet. Having just read this article about the effects of “trace” amounts of hormone disruptors such as phthalites and Bisphenol A, I can’t help wondering how long it might be before we see similar research exposing what many of us have long suspected about dioxin and other chemicals used in the manufacture of disposable pads and tampons.

Rastogi suggests if you are worried about your garbage output, you are better off buying bulk food and planning your grocery shopping to reduce food waste.

Hey, how about this crazy idea: why not do as much as you reasonably can? Why the cop-out on greening your period?

(more…)

Before we ring in some news about what’s new for 2010, we wanted to reflect upon 2009, and how it brought Lunapads some great new people, products and inspiration.  Here are a some of the highlights:

Pads4Girls expands:  During 2009, we expanded our Pads4Girls program by eagerly partnering with new groups that reached out to communities in Cuba, Zimbabwe, Sudan, Kenya, Uganda and Ethiopia.  Thanks to customer support and the work of courageous individuals and NGOs, hundreds of girls and women are now able to stay at work or school while menstruating, and deal with their periods safely and with minimal environmental impact.

Recognizing there are practical solutions closer to home, we created our  “Make your own cloth menstrual pads” video series that has been viewed by thousands. These videos are regularly used by women in Africa (and here in North America) to make their own cloth pads. And in December 2009, Lunapads partnered with Sustainable Health Enterprises (SHE) by donating 20% of holiday sales for 2 of our top-selling gift items to their program, which makes biodegradable disposable pads from agricultural waste in Rwanda.

Fabulous folks and adventures abroad: One of the perks of our work is choosing to take some strategic business trips and while doing so, connecting with some truly amazing people.  During 2009, we had the good fortune to meet some real treasures and leaders in our community: In March 2009, we attended the always mindboggling Expo West Natural Products Trade Show in Anaheim CA and reconnected with our friends Francine and Carinne Chamers, founders of the DivaCup and also met Sarah Kraft, founder of the online Mindful Mama community.

While walking the trade show, we spotted Mothering Magazine Founder, Editor and Publisher Peggy O’Mara and couldn’t miss the opportunity to stop and tell her how much we adored her.  This conversation led to the plans for a personal visit from Peggy right here at Lunapads the following month.  Leveraging off of Peggy’s rock star status as a natural parenting pioneer and leader, we brought together a group of friends and colleagues to hear Peggy speak at a warm and inspiring tea party benefiting Pads4Girls.

In September 2009, I took a first-time trip to the ABC kids expo in Las Vegas, where I also had an insightful visit to Zappos.com’s headquarters.  Meanwhile Suzanne had yet another transcendent experience at the Social Venture Institute (SVI) at Hollyhock, BC.  In November 2009, we both attended the Green America Business Conference and Green Festival in San Francisco.  While we were there, we had the great fortune to meet up with  SHE founder Elizabeth Scharpf and one of our business heroes, Reusablebags.com founder Vincent Cobb.

New products and fabrics: We expanded the Lunapads collection with several new products and fabrics: the P-style, Wysi-wipes, Cloth Wipes (which elicited one of our most discussed blog posts of the year) and our first-ever custom 100% organic cotton print, Magenta Mandala.

Lunapanties, our very own period underwear, made a long awaited comeback in November 2009, with the introduction of our new Hipster style and magenta colored organic cotton.

Staff changes: We bid a tearful and fond farewell to Sandra, one of our longest-term employees, as she moved on to continue her work as a bicycle safety educator. While it is hard to replicate Sandra’s incredible personal flair for customer service, Sara, the newest addition to the Lunapads team, is doing a fantastic job!

Media and accolades: In the summer of 2009, we learned that Lunapads and the DivaCup were featured in an entertaining and informative book by Canadian journalist Vanessa Farquharson called “Sleeping Naked is Green“.  At the end of 2009 Lunapads was profiled in our of our local papers, featuring a funny photo of Suzanne and I having a “tug-of-war” with a clothesline of Lunapads and Lunapanties.

By far the biggest highlight of the year was being voted into the top 10 of Green America’s People Choice Awards and so you can imagine our reaction when we found out that we had placed in the top 3 and received the newly-minted Shining Light award.

While Suzanne and I celebrated our award San Francisco, we never lost sight of the unsung heroes in the exercise: staffers Lisa and Morgan (whose idea it was in the first place), Facebook and Twitter (follow us! @Lunapads, @Luna_Diva (me) and @Luna_gal (Suzanne)) for providing the forums to drum up votes, and last but far from least, YOU, our awesome customers, for taking the time to cast your votes - it couldn’t have happened with you.

On that note, we’d like to take this opportunity to thank you all for a great 2009, and wish you all the best for 2010 from the Lunagals!

Suzanne and I are just back from a whirlwind trip to San Francisco to attend the Green America Business Conference and Green Festival. It was an action-packed 5 days in which we connected with some extraordinary people and organizations, as well as taking in the energy of one of the world’s most beloved cities.

But first, a drumroll…. for those of you who may not have heard the news, we are thrilled to tell you that yesterday Lunapads received the “Shining Light” award at the Green America People’s Choice business awards!  Before I explain what this is all about, I want to thank all of you who voted for us, tweeted and/or blogged about it, or have provided us with any form of support ever.  It was a very big moment for us, and it’s thanks to the enthusiasm of our customers and fans that we were able to celebrate ourselves and in turn the accomplishments of green/progressive/mission-based businesses in general. Thank you!

Without getting into the details, while we didn’t come first in the voting (Care2.com took the top spot - more on them in a later post in case you’re not already a member), our showing was so strong that the fabulous folks at Green America wanted to acknowledge us regardless. “We were really impressed with Lunapads’ showing in our People’s Choice contest.  Up against some larger, broader businesses with vast Internet reach, Lunapads mobilized their customers - a truly passionate following who had nothing but high praise for Lunapads - to pull them within striking distance of the top spot.  For a smaller, niche business to do that, while shining a light on the fact that there’s a green option for literally every product we use, we decided to present Lunapads with our Shining Light Award,” said Andrew Korfhage, Green America’s online editor and coordinator of the People’s Choice Award.

I for one love the idea that there is really an unlimited number of “winners” in the progressive business world, and to just hold up the number one spot leaves out what may well in fact be a majority of the picture - smaller businesses that collectively are making a huge impact. Speaking of which, Suzanne has been crunching some numbers lately, and has come up with the inspiring calculation that thanks to our customers having made the switch to reusable menstrual products, 1 million disposable pads and tampons are now being diverted from landfills every month. Way to go, everyone!

Because of their repeat finish in the voting race, A Lifetime Leadership award also went to Reuseit.com/Reusablebags.com (video interview with founder Vincent Cobb coming soon!) who were recipients of the 2006 People’s Choice Green Business of the Year award.  Many thanks to Alisa, Denise, Andrew, Shireen (who gave a very moving and thoughtful introduction to Lunapads) Misha, Desiree and the entire Green America team.  The conference and festival were awesome events that we will encourage others to attend. See you next year, we hope!

We love the irreverent tone of National Post columnist and Green as a Thistle blogger Vanessa Farquharson’s new debut memoir, Sleeping Naked is Green: How an eco-cynic unplugged her fridge, sold her car, and found love in 366 days.  She is a major Lunapads and DivaCup proponent, and has a particularly humorous story to tell about Lunapads, excerpted below:

september 29, day 213
Eat ice cream in a cone rather than a plastic cup. I thought that writing about Jake Gyllenhaal was the best way to get
more hits on my blog — man, was I wrong. Turns out, there’s another subject that’s guaranteed to get twice as many hits as Jake, and that
subject is menstruation. It’s totally bizarre — I mean it’s not as though
the only people procrastinating in the blogosphere are women, let
alone women who are very in touch with their bodies and like talking
about how in touch with their bodies they are. Or is it?
Either way, I realized this at some point yesterday, when my post
about using Lunapads reusable cloth pantyliners got upward of forty
comments, many of which revolved around topics like how to
clean them in the sink or a bucket, whether to subsequently empty
the bloody water into one’s potted plants, and so on, going into
enough detail to spoil my homemade lunch.
A funny back story to the Lunapads, though: I’d already bought
my own but the company who makes them found my blog and
decided to send me a bunch for free. They asked for my address,
so I decided to use the one at the National Post. The day they arrived,
I wasn’t in the office, but my editor was. Ben ended up making
dinner plans that night with Kelly, one of the reporters who
used to work with us, who was in Toronto for a brief visit to see his
old friends. Ben decided to bring him some sort of welcome-back
present and went rummaging through the Arts & Life swag pile.
(more…)

Suzanne and I were in Anaheim CA a couple of weeks ago, where we attended the Natural Products Expo West trade show. It’s a busy place that can be a bit overwhelming, but there was no shortage of inspiration to be had.   One of the major highlights for us was running into Peggy O’Mara, founder of Mothering magazine. 

I hadn’t seen Peggy since I attended a workshop she was leading 3 years ago at Hollyhock.  It was a very special time for me, and I was joined there not only by my then-5 month old daughter Gigi, but also by my Mom Pat.  Peggy held the space for our stories, joys and fears, and it was a once in a lifetime opportunity to connect with one of the most influential figures in the natural parenting movement.

Peggy and Mothering have been huge sources of inspiration and information for Suzanne and I as Moms, and we are very excited that she will be here in Vancouver delivering the keynote address at the Healthy Families Conference, April 18 and 19 (co-sponsored by our friend Bridgitte from Natural Pod natural toys.)  We are trying to line up a visit with Peggy here at Lunapads as well, so stay tuned!

We have started our film-star careers as videomakers here at Lunapads.  Such an interesting way to tell our story, as well as enlighten prospective customers about how to use our products.  Here is one of our first in our “Period Talk with the Lunagals” series, featuring the one and only DivaCup, part of our revamped “DivaCup 101” page:

Let us know what you think, and feel free to send us your video testimonials!

Sandra was just saying how the term “transportation options” could be humorously misunderstood as being about whether to walk, drive, fly, train or cycle, as opposed to answering the burning question of what to do with your Lunapads and DivaCup when you’re out of the house.  Let me know if you think of a better title, and in the meantime I hope that you enjoy these “expert” tips on managing your natural menstrual products when you’re on the go!

We were really excited when we were contacted by Redbook magazine a few weeks ago.  Were mainstream women’s magazines finally ready for natural menstrual products?  Well, um, sort of.  Turns out that Lunapads weren’t the only period reference in the magazine (not counting the numerous ads for disposable pads and tampons) - check out what they had to say and see what you think…

“Your standard maxi pad might last five hours – but now you can get a pad that’ll last you five years!  The folks at Lunapads want you to add period products to the list of recyclables in your eco-friendly life.  These customizable cloth pads accommodate a wide variety of sizes and flows, and they’re machine-washable.  We’re all for going green, but this idea strikes us a little, um, yucky.”

Speaking of things that are yucky, this seems like a good opportunity to review the environmental impact of disposable pads and tampons.  A recent article by Eunice Wong at Truthdig.com spells it out in graphic detail, but for those who don’t have time to get all the way through it, here are some highlights:

There are 85 million women of menstruating age in North America. Conservative estimates are that the average woman disposes of between 10,000 and 15,000 tampons, pads and applicators in her lifetime. That’s about 250 to 300 pounds of waste per woman.  In the United States and Canada alone, more than 12 billion pads, tampons and applicators are tossed annually. (We typically quote the number as 14 billion, including applicators).

Which brings me to the article on the very next page, a laundry list of Redbook readers’ to-dos for President Obama.  Number 4 on the list is titled “Prioritize our planet’s protection”, saying “It’s time to go very green.  We must care for our world.”  Um, great idea - as long as we don’t have to wash our own menstrual pads, right?

Last but not least, 42 pages later a reader asks for advice on how to get her period-shy boyfriend into bed while she’s bleeding.  Among other options, Redbook’s Love Network expert Lou Paget suggests “point(ing) out that getting it on during your period could make for a new, different kind of fun.  The extra fluid causes more slipperiness that many couples really enjoy.”

Talk about mixed messages.  First we have Lunapads sounding great (until you get to the last line), then a stirring call to eco-arms, topped off with a strongly pro-period message (at least when you’re in the mood).  Hard to know what to make of it all, but at least we’re on the radar!