S03 Episode 151 | ORGANICUP + COMBATING MENSTRUAL WASTE

In episode 151, Kestrel welcomes Gitte Dalberg-Larsen, the founder of Organicup, to the show. The award-winning menstrual cup, Organicup helps replace pads and tampons, and reduce waste connected to women's health. "We are on a mission to improve menstrual health on a personal and cultural and global level." -Gitte Dalberg-Larsen, Founder of Organicup In this week's show, Gitte shares more on what led her to build a menstrual cup company, and what she has learned along the way. Additionally, she provides more of an in-depth look at how much period waste each menstruating woman generates throughout her life. Gitte + Kestrel also dive into how society historically has aligned women's health, sexuality, and menstruation with taboo topics, and how we can continue to further challenge these systemic norms. The below thoughts, ideas + organizations were brought up in this chat: The first menstrual cup was actually introduced in the 1930s, but then it never caught on or took off. "For an average woman, we use approximately 11,000 disposable pads and tampons in our lifetime of having our period. So, if you multiple that number by all the women on this planet, it's really a substantial amount of waste. "In the US alone, 12 billion pads and 7 million tampons pollute the landfills annually." "The time it takes for a tampon or a pad to degrade in a landfill is centuries longer than the lifespan of the woman who's throwing it out." Period Poverty: a lot of young girls and women cannot afford period products — the menstrual cup is one option to help reduce these costs — Organicup partners with several nonprofits in Europe and around the world to help get menstrual cups to women who need them.