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Background

Across the UK, it’s estimated that single use period products generate 200,000 tonnes of landfill waste each year.

The average person who uses period products throws away up to 200kg of these in their lifetime.

Some period products can be made of up to 90% plastic.

A period can cost a menstruating woman up to £492/year

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Reduce the amount of period waste going to landfill.

Reduce plastic waste.

Behaviour change - Offering products for free to BCC residents and proving an easy online ordering system.

Mainstream the products - Encourage talkability of reusable period products and make them a more attractive offering to the general public.

Key aims

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Launched on 30 March‘22 with an initial budget of £10K.

We worked with social enterprise ‘Hey Girls’ to deliver the scheme, where participants could register and order reusable period products online. Belfast City Council Home Packs - Hey Girls

Original budget was £10K, with an additional £40K to fulfil the orders received.

We delivered nearly 2,800 reusable products to the residents of Belfast.

The Pilot Scheme

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Full Cycle Pack (containing 1 x reusable pantyliner, 2 x day reusable pads and 2 x night reusable pads).

Biodegradable and made from environmentally friendly materials such as sustainable oeko-tex bamboo and 100% organic cotton.

The Products – Full Cycle pack

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This combo kit includes a period cup and sterilising pot together in a washbag made from recycled plastic.

Both products are made from soft, medical grade silicone and can last up to 10 years

The Products – The Cup Combo

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Social Media - organic

Facebook

We issued one post announcing the scheme and made an edit to the post advising of the oversubscription.

Post statistics –

96,086 people reached
15,838 engagements (13,300 post clicks and 2,538 reactions, comments, and shares)

Twitter

We issued two tweets about the scheme, the first announcing the scheme and the second advising of the oversubscription.

Post statistics -

18,412 impressions
501 engagements (likes, retweets etc)
228.8k reach (the number of people who saw the posts)

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Market Research Results - Sept 2022

58% use the products all the time and 37% use them occasionally.
43% of respondents have stopped using single-use period products completely.
87% said it had lessoned their use of single use products.
97% were happy with the products themselves.
76% said they wouldn’t or may not have purchased the products if the scheme wasn’t offering them.

Response rate of 491 respondents.

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Market Research Results contd - Sept 2022

‘I have converted completely to reusable period products, and I will

never go back. I think every council should offer starter packs to get

people interested. The products on offer are very high quality and

really useful.’

‘Great idea- I think there are a lot of unknowns around reusable

products and offering them free like this is a great idea to give people

the opportunity to try them and I think many concerns people had

beforehand will be disproven.’

‘It is also a bonus that not only are we helping the environment by reducing waste, but over time will make financial savings.’

‘I always wanted to try reusable pads but I wasn't sure they were ok for me. Now I know and I will be buying and using them in the future.’

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Replication of pilot scheme is currently running.

Combined project with BCC Climate Change Funding coupled with our own funding and linked to Community Provision partners to help provide sustainable solutions to period poverty – targeted to Women’s Centres, Social Supermarkets, Food Banks etc.

Staff scheme within the Council, Women's Strategic Group offering free reusable period products to staff.

This environmental focus on period products encouraged our Facilities Team to seek out plastic-free, single-use alternatives for the free product offering in selected Council buildings.

The Future…

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