Conventional feminine hygiene products, and even some claiming to be natural, operate in a market mostly indistinguishable from each other in the use of raw materials derived from crude oil.

CRUDE OIL PLASTIC DESTROYS LIFE

Together with The Women’s Environmental Network and Greenpeace, we championed the issues relating to Dioxin and chlorine bleaching back in 1989.  Post consumer waste, whilst being recycled, cannot be chlorine free because the original pulp would have been bleached with chlorine.  Natracare is the only totally chlorine-free range of feminine hygiene pads and tampons available in the world.

About 90% of the materials used to make a single Conventional pad or liner, as well as a Seventh Generation pad/liner, are produced from crude oil.

This includes the plastic family: polyethylene, polypropylene and the polyacrylate super absorbents, the extraction, production and manufacture of which contributes Nitrogen oxide, Sulfur dioxide and Carbon dioxide-ozone depleting gases; human toxins that lead to cancer and birth defects as well as chemicals that cause the acidification of trees.

Retailers could help to educate women about the effects of the choices they make when buying feminine hygiene products by creating a product analysis and ingredient listing area, much like the one pictured above.  Education is key, so help make the leap by creating a merchandising display that demonstrates the true nature of the products that women buy each month.  If you separate out all the crude oil plastic contained in the pads and multiply that by 45 billion, this is how much plastic is used to make the illustrated pads each year.

The pots contain the crude oil derived plastic used in a single pad.  From left to right: Natracare (0%), Seventh Generation (85%), Conventional pad, brand leader (90%)

Natracare does not use plastic because:

Every year, over 45 billion feminine hygiene products are disposed of somewhere.  Given the very high plastic loading of these products, incineration can lead to toxic releases from stacks and burying them in landfill, which would require holes 300 foot square, meaning that plastic persists in the environment for centuries. 

The production of plastic from crude oil releases large amounts of toxic pollution into the environment and its disposal is responsible for much of the accountable damage to wildlife and landscape.

During the late 80’s, the outrage that was initially voiced by women’s groups regarding the status quo in the manufacture and marketing of feminine hygiene products, its effects on the environment and the implications for women’s health, resonated with Susie Hewson, the founder of Natracare.

Inspired by the possibility of making a difference, our vision and “Can do” attitude facilitated innovation without ecological exploitation and rove us to develop a range of sanitary pads, liners and tampons that were totally chlorine-free, devoid of crude oil derived plastics and made from sustainable and biodegradable materials.
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The leading position that the Natracare brand holds today is, in some part, attributed to the integrity of the specifications for the raw materials that we use and the quality of the products that we produce.

One of the greatest influences in our success has been word of mouth, and the voice that started as a whisper 17 years ago is growing ever louder.

The best thing we can do for the Planet Earth is to use less of it and to consider the environmental effect of the raw materials used to produce products