How to Make Your Period More Planet-Friendly

A hundred fossil fuel companies are responsible for 71 percent of the greenhouse gas emissions contributing to climate change. Would you, a lone citizen, consider combating the environmental crisis by using the same silicone menstrual cup every month?

I kid, I kid — but in all seriousness, that is what much of the marketing around having “a more sustainable period” sounds like. Period panties are supposedly “saving the planet.” People are shamed into giving up tampons. And as the climate situation worsens (floods, flames, apocalyptic sunsets), and it becomes clear that corporations are to blame (PG&E sparked another forest fire, a gas pipeline set the ocean ablaze), citizens are over the idea that individual action is the answer. What difference can one menstrual cup make when oil companies continue to bleed the earth dry? Well… it’s complicated.

Today, periods are a significant source of waste. A single menstruator ends up “using 5,000 to 10,000 tampons throughout their lifetime,” Jennifer Brush, an executive at period care brand Cora, tells Vogue. “That’s a lot of material going to a landfill.” In the United States alone, tampons, pads, and panty liners create about 200,000 metric tons of garbage each year — from the products themselves, yes, but also from the wrappers, applicators, and containers they come in. (Not-so-fun fact: Even pads…