Sanitary products made from plants could help tackle period poverty
Researchers have extracted absorbent materials from the succulent Agave sisalana for making local, low-cost period products.
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Show Notes
Around 500 million people are estimated to be in period poverty, lacking adequate access to sanitary products. Many of these people rely on donations, but this is far from a long-term solution. To tackle this researchers have developed a method to extract absorbent materials for menstrual pads from a common plant, Agave sisalana. The researchers say that their method can be performed using local techniques and has a lower environmental impact than the manufacture of other period products. They're aiming to scale-up this approach to help those in period poverty.
Research Article: Molina et al.
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