The disposal and
recycling of sanitary pad, which is used by women for private personal hygiene,
is at the center of a raging open controversy in Pune, Maharshtra. According to
the estimates, the city's female population generates about 10 million used
sanitary pads weighing around 140 tonnes, per month, posing a major challenge
to dispose them off safely without causing health or eco-hazards. Conservancy group
in Pune is now protesting against handling and disposing of sanitary pads and
even baby or adult diapers which are thrown into trash bins.
For the first time in India, the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) has demanded that sanitary pad manufacturers must include an identifiable disposal bag with each sanitary pad to eliminate environmental and health hazards arising out of its disposal. Joint Municipal Commissioner Suresh Jagtap said that in January, Mayor Vaishali Bankar and Municipal Commissioner Mahesh Pathak had invited some of the companies for a meeting to hammer out a solution. But no company representative turned up.
For the first time in India, the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) has demanded that sanitary pad manufacturers must include an identifiable disposal bag with each sanitary pad to eliminate environmental and health hazards arising out of its disposal. Joint Municipal Commissioner Suresh Jagtap said that in January, Mayor Vaishali Bankar and Municipal Commissioner Mahesh Pathak had invited some of the companies for a meeting to hammer out a solution. But no company representative turned up.
A non-government organisation - Solid Waste Collection and Management (SWaCH) - decided to take some direct action. On March 8, International Women's Day, they collected bundles of used sanitary pads and returned them to the companies which manufactured them.
The move worked. Officials from some of the top companies in the business like Johnson & Johnson, Proctor & Gamble, Hindustan Unilever and Kimberly Clarke Lever met the PMC authorities in April and assured a solution within three months. This would include how to dispose of the used sanitary pads, whether they should be segregated as wet or dry waste, whether the products are bio-degradable or not and whether they are recyclable or not. But, since then three months have passed but they have not acted in the matter
In a unique
public-private-partnership initiative of the PMC, SWaCH, was given a five-year
contract in 2008 to collect household waste and dispose them off in a safe and
environment friendly manner. Accordingly, SWaCH's 2,300 waste-picker members,
including 300 men, collect all waste door-to-door from 400,000 homes, or nearly
53 percent of all Pune's houses. The PMC
pays them between Rs.10 and Rs.30 per household and the rest of the money the
waste-pickers earn from disposing of the waste collected after segregating it
as plastic, metal, paper, cloth, glass, biodegradable waste and the like.
However, the biggest complaint from SWaCH members is handling sanitary pads and diapers which they consider insulting as well as a major health hazard.
According to the Extended Producers Responsibility under the Plastics Management & Handling Rules, 2011, it is the manufacturers' responsibility to ensure that they are responsible for their products till the very end after they are used. It is know n that the unaware masses simply drop them in dustbins or flush them in toilets, with the risk of choking the drainage systems. A sanitary napkin comprises over 90 percent crude oil plastic and the rest is chlorine-bleached wood or cotton pulp.
The usage of sanitary pads is growing and becoming popular even in rural areas and so it was imperative for the manufacturers to evolve a solution to the looming crisis. SWaCH has made a small beginning by manufacturing tiny, easily identifiable yellow bags with a string, sold at Re.1 per piece to some of the households they service. They are made by retired waste-pickers who have no other source of income. We are able to supply around 20,000 per month, while the actual requirement is staggeringly high.
Incidentally, the PMC-SWaCH initiative has been supported by other NGOs like the Centre for Environment & Education, Stree Mukti Sanghatana, Parisar and Janwani, as also the state government.
A 2011 survey by AC Nielsen, "Sanitary protection: Every Woman's Health Right", revealed only a 12 percent usage of sanitary napkins in India, among the lowest in the world.
However, SWaCH estimates that the number of used sanitary pads in Pune would be around half a million a month, based on the national average. According to estimates arising from the survey, nearly 36 million Indian women use sanitary napkins every month and at an average 12 per month per woman, it amounts to 432 million weighing 9,000 tonnes.
However, the biggest complaint from SWaCH members is handling sanitary pads and diapers which they consider insulting as well as a major health hazard.
According to the Extended Producers Responsibility under the Plastics Management & Handling Rules, 2011, it is the manufacturers' responsibility to ensure that they are responsible for their products till the very end after they are used. It is know n that the unaware masses simply drop them in dustbins or flush them in toilets, with the risk of choking the drainage systems. A sanitary napkin comprises over 90 percent crude oil plastic and the rest is chlorine-bleached wood or cotton pulp.
The usage of sanitary pads is growing and becoming popular even in rural areas and so it was imperative for the manufacturers to evolve a solution to the looming crisis. SWaCH has made a small beginning by manufacturing tiny, easily identifiable yellow bags with a string, sold at Re.1 per piece to some of the households they service. They are made by retired waste-pickers who have no other source of income. We are able to supply around 20,000 per month, while the actual requirement is staggeringly high.
Incidentally, the PMC-SWaCH initiative has been supported by other NGOs like the Centre for Environment & Education, Stree Mukti Sanghatana, Parisar and Janwani, as also the state government.
A 2011 survey by AC Nielsen, "Sanitary protection: Every Woman's Health Right", revealed only a 12 percent usage of sanitary napkins in India, among the lowest in the world.
However, SWaCH estimates that the number of used sanitary pads in Pune would be around half a million a month, based on the national average. According to estimates arising from the survey, nearly 36 million Indian women use sanitary napkins every month and at an average 12 per month per woman, it amounts to 432 million weighing 9,000 tonnes.
Considering that this is the prelude to the
known problem other cities of India would be facing soon, the local government
and NGO should regulate this eco-hazard on priority unless it becomes a unmanageable
problem.
