India generates 44,125 million kilograms of sanitary waste every year. Sanitary waste hurts both nature and human life. It causes pollution and exposes sanitary workers to various infections, loss of dignity, and mental health issues.
According to data collected by the Menstrual Hygiene Alliance of India (MHAI), India takes care of the disposal of 12.3 billion sanitary napkins every year, the majority of them being non-biodegradable and non-compostable.
The problem of sanitary waste disposal has become an increasing one in India because the plastics used in the disposable sanitary napkins are non-biodegradable and are the cause of several environmental and health hazards.
The impact of such hazards is more profound because of the improper and unorganized ways of municipal solid waste management and poor collection, transportation, and disposal networks in the cities and villages of India.
What Happens to Sanitary Pads After Being Disposed Of?
After collecting the household wastes that include disposed of sanitary napkins, the garbage collector hands them off for being segregated, which is often done manually.
In this process of manually segregating such household wastes, waste pickers expose themselves to micro-organisms such as salmonella, staphylococcus, E.Coli, HIV, and other pathogens that are the cause of ease such as tetanus and hepatitis.
Subsequently, the sanitary waste is driven out of the city and is left to be buried in one of the many landfills on the outskirts of the city.
Threat to the Environment
The problem lies in the fact that around 90% of a sanitary napkin is made out of plastic. The topmost thin layer on sanitary napkins, often known as the dry-weave top sheet is constituted of polypropylene, a plastic polymer.
This plastic used in the sanitary napkins, being non-biodegradable, poses many threats to the environment. Because of this non-biodegradable nature, these disposed of sanitary napkins stay in the landfills for about 800 years.
The process applied by the Indian government as a solution to this issue is incineration. In the waste-to-technology incinerators, the waste is combusted to generate electricity or energy. This combustion is to be carried out at temperatures above almost 800 degrees, which is very difficult to maintain and cautiously handle, accompanied by a lack of provisions for monitoring the emissions from the incinerators.
Another drawback of using incinerators is that very few such wastes to electricity or energy plants exist in India and the ones that carry out their operations at a large scale, are located at select locations.
Apart from taking hundreds of years to decompose, the superabsorbent polymers (SAP) present in the padding of the commercial sanitary napkins, absorb and retain around 30 times their weight, possibly even more, in the fluid.
This is often the reason behind the clogging of toilets, drains, and sewage systems and on being burned, they release toxic fumes like furans and dioxides that are harmful to both, the environment and humans.
The Three Concerns
The MHAI states three main concerns that are central to the management of non-biodegradable and non-compostable waste in India. The first one being the scarcity of proper disposal and treatment options which lead to unsafe management of the waste.
The second one being the lack of accessibility of existing waste management options to girls and women due to their restrained ability to negotiate for disposal solutions because of the stigma and a continued culture of silence that is associated with menstruation.
And the last one, that is lack of proper disposal options which may lead to women and girls using sanitary napkins in an unhygienic manner, for example, because of lack of a proper system and a place for the sanitary napkin’s disposal, using it for a longer duration than it is intended for, may cause health problems.
Impact on Sanitary Workers
Segregation of sanitary waste using hands is a form of manual scavenging. Uncovered sanitary pads cause the bacteria to multiply, increasing the workers’ exposure to bacterial infections and health hazards.
Sanitary napkins with “odour lock gel” features get stuck in the sewers due to improper disposal methods and it is a human hand that goes inside the sewer to remove it.
It is not uncommon for a waste collector to complain, of being diagnosed with bacterial infections multiple times and how intolerable it is for him and his coworkers to deal with the toxic smells and insects every day as they segregate the menstrual waste by hand.
Action Through Policies
As per the SWM Rules 2016 issued by the Union Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate, it is now mandatory for sanitary napkin manufacturers to provide a recyclable wrapper or pouch for proper disposal of menstrual waste.
As per the Menstrual Hygiene Management (MHM) Guidelines, sanitary pads are required to be dumped after covering them with either newspaper or the pouch.
Another step that could be adopted by consumers is to replace sanitary napkins with any of the alternatives available such as menstrual cups. For awareness regarding the same, menstrual health education as a part of the institutional curriculum is a must to enable the users to make an informed choice.
Written by - Rishika Taneja
Edited by - Piyush Pandey
Edited by - Piyush Pandey
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