They say that the ban on tampons in Mexico City needs a gender perspective to comply with sustainability

2021 began with the ban on single-use plastics in Mexico City. The Solid Waste Act removed forks, knives, spoons, mixing sticks, plates, straws, balloons, glasses, trays and tampons in all shopping malls, pharmacies, stores and small businesses.

The conversation fell into the tampon applicators. One of the most used products to manage menstruation began to be scarce in the country's capital.

“What we were asking for is that there be a better gender perspective when formulating these laws. We are looking at ourselves, our menstruation, what we choose, but we are not seeing everything behind us,” says Anahi Rodríguez, spokesperson for Dignified Menstruation Mexico, a group of 30 organizations across the country that advocates on issues of menstrual health and women's rights.

The collective clarifies that it is not against the use of other sustainable alternatives. But yes, given the lack of studies on menstrual poverty, that is, the socio-economic impossibility of women and girls to purchase products that allow them to manage their periods.

Although the ban on plastic tampons occurred this year, the CDMX Solid Waste Act was approved since 2019 to curb the marketing, distribution and delivery of single-use plastics. The material, once considered an advance towards modernity, is now a global problem that leaves 8 million tons of plastic waste in the sea every year. As monumental as the Latin American Tower in Mexico City, some specialists compare.

“Of course, in this case the situation is more complex because we are not talking about a bag that is easily changed with a reusable bag and that's it. In this case, it is important to consider the different realities that women face in the city,” says Ornela Garelli, a specialist in Responsible Consumption and Climate Change at‎Greenpeace.

The different realities to which Garelli refers are those that show the conditions of inequality experienced in Mexico. For example, figures from CONEVAL 2018 indicate that 41.9% of the population lives in poverty, considering indicators such as educational backwardness, lack of social security and difficult access to basic services such as water, electricity, gas, among others.

In addition to this, the law is currently not aimed at reducing pollution, Greenpeace says. On the contrary, COVID-19 generated an increase in waste such as face masks, gloves and disinfectant bottles, in addition to those that come from takeaway food services.

The lack of results in the plastic ban could be due to the fact that it is still too early to talk about a measurement of its impact in the face of the coronavirus pandemic, says Edgar Lugo, consultant on environmental issues and member of the Mexico Without Plastic Alliance. Although Ornela Garelli says that these types of laws are more focused on a cultural impact than an environmental one.

Sustainable menstruation in an unequal country

The contamination of tampons is undeniable. If the menstrual cycle lasts an average of five days and it is necessary to change the tampon every four hours, this represents 30 products per cycle, 360 in a year and 13,320 over a lifetime, if you start at age 13 and end with menopause at 50, according to estimates from Oceana Mexico.

Like other plastic waste, it will spend more time polluting the planet than fulfilling its function.

In Mexico City, Alessandra Rojo de la Vega, the legislator who promoted the initiative, suggested that when it comes to a health issue, menstrual cups should be given as an alternative. In addition to asking women to opt for other tampon options, such as those with cardboard applicators, which are also more expensive and less accessible.

For example, a tampon with a plastic applicator that could cost an average of three pesos, with a cardboard applicator would increase to 28 pesos.

Photo: Andrea Murcia/cuartoscuro.com

“Whether it was a bad step or not, I think that the Government of Mexico City should launch these complementary public policies for information for the population, and also for access to these reusable alternatives so that people have options, not be left in the running out of stock,” he explains.

The conversation about tampons isn't over yet. Recently, Dignified Menstruation for Mexico filed a complaint with the Council to Prevent and Eliminate Discrimination of Mexico City (COPRED) exposing the situation of menstrual poverty in the face of the Solid Waste Act.

And the producers?

Barbara Unmüßig, president of the Heinrich Böll Foundation in Germany, explains in an article that one of the great myths of plastic is that solutions depend only on citizens. As plastic manufacturers continue to expand their capacity to produce, the search for alternatives to face the crisis will stall.

Producers are evading responsibility, Unmüßig says. Mainly in such necessary industries as food, chemistry and packaging. This doesn't mean that citizens don't have to change habits, but companies are being left out of the conversation.

“I know that many times, environmentalists and collectives see the manufacturer as the bad guy in the film, and it's not that he's the bad guy, but we do need the concept in which he's doing things to change,” says Edgar Lugo, a member of Alianza México Sin Plastico.

Mexico is one of the countries that produce the most single-use plastics. In a national population of 130 million, each person can consume up to 200 containers per year. Once discarded, they will reach marine species. It will even fragment into microplastics that we will consume, between 5 and 10 grams per week.

“One of the issues that makes it difficult to access reusable products is because you can only find them in online stores. Sometimes they are not available to the population. These companies could offer reusable products [...] that are responsible for the waste generated by disposable ones and provide reusable alternatives,” says the specialist in Responsible Consumption and Climate Change at‎Greenpeace.

Reuse: don't replace waste with other waste More than five years

ago, biologist Christine Figgener shared a video that went around the world. A recording of almost two minutes in which they extracted the straw from the nose of a sea turtle.

The story was so shocking that people began to reject the use of this utensil. Even the Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources (SEMARNAT) carried out a campaign under the same slogan: “without a straw it's fine”.

“Plastic bans promote a cultural change in which as consumers we can leave behind the use and throw away, the culture of the disposable,” says Ornela Garelli.

In other words, although prohibitions such as the Solid Waste Act help to rethink greener alternatives, they continue to present the replacement of one waste with another waste. Whether made of paper, cotton, cardboard or any other material, waste continues to be generated in the world.

The solution? For environmentally friendly organizations, it is moving towards reusable alternatives. Both producers in industries looking for more sustainable materials and citizens are implementing habits.

“The environmental crisis does require us to make changes, but for these changes to be durable and become habits, we must take the time we need to adapt,” Garelli says.