Sustainability Project
Sustainability Project
Sustainability Project
Group Project
Submitted to-
1
Why the Topic has Been Selected
This topic was selected to study the consumption patterns, and the carbon footprint caused by
using menstrual management products (sanitary pads & tampons). As all the residents of H4
are educated on the norms and use of sanitary napkins, proactive measures to manage the
subsequent waste produced still need to be improved. There is an urgent need to formulate an
ideal disposal pattern than simply wrapping the used sanitary pads and throwing them in the
dustbin. A year’s worth of a typical feminine hygiene product leaves a carbon footprint of 5.3
kg CO2 equivalents. This small research aims to investigate how girls on the college campus
manage their menstrual waste and the number of sanitary napkins used.
Techniques Used
There are 145 girls in the batch of 21-23 & 22-24 combined, we floated google forms in H4
(Girl’s hostel) groups. The survey form was designed to obtain inputs such as feminine
hygiene habits and disposal habits of the respondents. We received 120 responses, and we
extrapolated the feminine hygiene products consumption for all 145 residents of the H4
residents. Finally, we calculated the amount of waste generated and its equivalent carbon
footprint.
One limitation of this methodology is that since this is a sensitive topic, respondents tend to
give socially acceptable answers. The questionnaire was not designed using projective
techniques to account for this limitation. We went ahead with direct questions to get clear
answers, and no ambiguity, and since the target demographic of the study is women pursuing
management, who are progressive and would give responses as is. Hence, we did not feel the
need to use projective techniques.
Analysis & Major Findings
Table 1Types of products used by the respondents Figure 1 Bar chart representation
Inference- Most of the population (87%) uses Sanitary Pads, the major contributor to the
waste gamut. Around 3% of the population uses Tampons which are also waste generators.
Menstrual cups have the most negligible negative impact on the environment due to their
reusability and long life.
2
Table 2 Consumption of pads per cycle
Inference - The table shows the total number of Pads used based on the number of pads
used per cycle. After extrapolating the responses, the number of pads consumed per cycle is
1593. There are 13 cycles in a year; hence the total pads per year would be 1593*13 =
20709
364 pads giving 4kg carbon emission - means 1 pad = 10.98gm carbon
Total Carbon emission: 22.7385 kg carbon per year
Inference: Amount of money spent in sanitary pads per year- Rs. 251558.5
Consumption of Variants
3
87% of the girls use non-Compostable pads which take around 800-900 years to
decompose and are only for one-time use. These pads exert a lot of carbon footprint and
waste inside the IMT premises.
Table 4 Chemical Composition of various sanitary products and their life span
Learnings
To be fair, the amount of hazardous waste generated by sanitary napkins is not just an IMT
problem, it’s a worldwide issue. To control this waste, and manage it responsibly we learned
the following measures could be taken:
4
3. Promotion of Eco-friendly products
There is a clear need to invest in promoting eco-friendly alternatives with positive
effects on human health, the economy, and the environment when one considers the
present ecosystem of sanitary goods on the market and the resources required for their
production.
References