Why Switch Now?

My biggest motivation for switching from disposable to cloth was money.  I’m very money conscious and always looking for ways to cut the fat in my monthly budget.  I estimate that I spend around $60 a year on pads and $20 a year on panty liners.  If you consider that I’ve had my period for 18+ years I estimate I’ve spent around $1440 in my lifetime on these products, not including tampons.  With the prices of everything going up and the fact that I have at least 20+ more years of this, taking initial cloth pad startup into consideration I still predict I could save a lot of money by switching.

While money is my main reason for making the switch there are other factors worth mentioning.

For starters the average woman throws away approximately 16,800 disposable pads or tampons in her lifetime.  That’s around 20 billion feminine hygiene products ending up in North America’s landfills a year!  By purchasing and using just one cloth pad you’re replacing 100-200 disposables. 

Another consideration is that cloth is healthier than disposable.  There are a small percentage of women who can’t even use disposables due to infections or allergic reactions and cloth or menstrual cups are their only choice.  Many women are not aware of the ingredients that go into making their disposable pads.  One such ingredient is dioxin, which the EPA has identified as a ‘probable cancer-causing agent’.

Finally many of the cloth pad company’s give back.  There is one brand that distributes their products to African girls so that they can still attend school because when they are on their period they stay home.  Another brand plants a tree for every product you buy.  You don’t see Kotex or Always donating their time or money to anything like that.

For me, the positives out way the negatives.  Yes I understand I’ll have to clean them, but just as disposables have become a way of life I will find myself into a new cloth routine that will become second nature.