Solving a global issue around period poverty takes a broad team - in both expertise and geographic locations. We are an academic lab at Stanford University with access to many resources across the institution, and yet, still lack clarity on the breadth of the problem, potential solutions, and the feasibility understanding of this effort. Since embarking on this journey, we have fostered partnerships with tool builders in the field, fellow researchers working on similar issues, and entrepreneurs who are already on the scale-up side of things.
Period poverty is not an easy problem to solve. We need expertise in all aspects to help define the nuances of the problem and find feasible solutions that can materialize.
our consortium partners:
microscopy of foamed bamboo fibers; photo credit: LGP2
To truly make an impact toward ending period poverty, the solutions need to scale beyond the lab and into the field
Another team out of a non-profit social enterprise based out of both Germany and Nepal, NIDISI, is already underway in building small manufacturing facilities in Nepal to produce menstrual pads using banana pseudostems as the absorbent media. Banana pseudostems are annually cut from the trees to allow for a new fruiting tree to grow, hence finding a new bioeconomy around this agricultural waste would be highly beneficial environmentally and economically. Like the team at LGP2, they also do not employ chemicals in their process, but instead rely on the naturally absorbent nature of banana pseudostems and mechanical beating to expose the cellulose.
They have heavily engaged the local communities in Nepal to build a strong social structure of individuals who will be taking ownership of the social business once it’s up and running. Additionally, being a social business, education and awareness campaigns are also a significant portion of their work. As of today, they have completed the fluff manufacturing facility and are currently working hard on building the pad assembly facility.
sisal fibers transformed into absorbent fluff for a menstrual pad; photo credit: Andrew Brodhead/Stanford University
sisal leaves being decorticated to extract their fibers; photo credit: Alex Odundo
A student from Castilleja School working with sisal to produce fluff; photo credit: Aashi
While our lab was busy with learning and working with sisal (Agave Sisalana), the LGP2 lab at the Université Grenoble Alpes has also done similar studies using bamboo. Bamboo is a great material candidate for use in disposable products as they are fast-growing and easily degradable. Their team had devised a protocol using no chemicals to produce cellulose foam structures that have high absorption capacities. By using surfactants as a media, they were able to form a highly porous material that can be dried while maintaining its structure, thus allowing for high absorption.
For our work, we have experimented with various combinations of chemical and mechanical processing to produce highly-absorbent materials from sisal, a succulent which grows easily in semi-arid areas. Currently, the largest producers of sisal are Brazil, Tanzania, and Kenya, however the economy around sisal are still primarily rooted in the rope industry. Compared to cotton, which uses a significant amount of water to grow, sisal can provide an environmental alternative biomass for absorbent media. In our recent publication, we have demonstrated how sisal fibers, through a two-step chemical process, can be transformed into an absorbent fluff, matching the absorption found in commercially available pads. Read more about our research here.
These three parallel efforts toward producing absorbent fluff for the pad’s core material have made great progress toward a more sustainable disposable pads, however, there’s still a lot of work left in producing the top porous and bottom non-porous layers (essentially the opposite properties from the absorbent core) also out of degradable products - ideally from the same bio feedstock used in the absorbent core. Additionally, we are also looking to broaden the selection of biomass tested. The goal of this project is to allow for a feasible deployment of small manufacturing plants for all the pad’s layers in various parts of the world which use locally-abundant resources.
Another partner in Nigeria, Mitimeth, has an existing social enterprise focused around water hyacinth - an aquatic weed that regularly needs to be cleared away as it often blocks waterways. Although the current enterprise develops woven baskets out of dried water hyacinth stems, we think there’s a great potential for its use in menstrual pads, given their aquatic nature.
As evident here, the consortium we’re building is a collection of enthusiastic groups and individuals who have vastly different backgrounds, expertise, and skill sets. If you’d to engage in this effort either as a researcher, entrepreneur, builder, agriculturalist, educator, please click here for more information.
fluff manufacturing facility in Nepal (top), banana fibers transformed into absorbent fluff in a menstrual pad (bottom); photo credit: NIDISI
droplets on a hydrophobic material made of extracted lignin laminated onto a kim wipe; photo credit: Prakash Lab
Alternative materials can provide new possibilities.
Can we build a flushable/compostable pad using plants?
Our work with sisal was made possible through our partner in Kenya - Alex Odundo is a tool builder in Kenya who works with local farmers in producing a sustainable bio economy from sisal. Alex builds decorticator machines that allows farmers to extract fibers from sisal leaves, hence increasing the value of sisal for use in other industries down the pipeline. The hope is to mirror this effort elsewhere for other plants.
Scaling up also means broadening our reach and share our knowledge and also discover new ideas from others learners.
women weaving products out of water hyacinth in Nigeria; photo credit: Mitimeth
Aside from material research and innovation around various biomasses, we also believe in the critical role of education and outreach to both reduce period stigma and also build a scientific community rooted in solving real global needs. Our lab embraces the concept of what we call “frugal science” in which we think and build innovative solutions to democratize access to healthcare (diagnostics) and scientific discovery (various microscopy tools). Within this last quarter, a group of 20 high-school students from Castilleja School in Palo Alto, CA have begun researching and replicating our protocols with various plants (rice husks, kapok, hemp, flax, and sisal). This not only allows for a preliminary try screening of other potential plants but also exposes the students to the technical science and social aspect of menstrual hygiene. We hope to continue this effort with many other schools and eventually role this into an educational curriculum.
