Producing Sanitary Pads from Knitwear Waste in Bangladesh

Abstract

At present, not only Bangladesh but also the entire world is so conscious about women’s health and environmental protection. In our country, a large number of women, especially those from low socio-economic groups, do not use sanitary napkins since the available pads in the market are costly. They make use of old rags instead which are not comfortable or hygienic, leading to illnesses which constantly cause absence from work. On the contrary, export income of Bangladesh heavily depends on its textile industry which produces almost 500,000 tons of clothing waste annually. Moreover, clothes are generally thrown away after use. Both these incidents cause serious problems to the environment. For instance, waste clothes take plenty of time to mix with soil, causing landfill problems. Besides, some people burn these thrown away clothing materials in order to reduce solid waste, which instead causes carbon emission. Burning these wastes is not a solution. To solve these problems we have made sanitary pads from recycled cotton collected from waste clothes and thrown away clothing materials, particularly the knitwear which are more sustainable, lightweight, and affordable.