It is no news that the burden of sanitary waste is only growing because of the usage of Sanitary pads/ napkins. In fact, an estimated potential of 9000 tonnes of sanitary waste (432 million pads) is being generated annually in India, as per a report by Clean Indian Journal. However, what do we do about waste that is generated because of women's essential monthly cycle- periods? Recently, substitutes of sanitary napkins such as tampons and silicon menstrual cups have become popular in the market. But Indian women are still a bit hesitant of using tampons or menstrual cup for several reasons. Another substitute of sanitary napkins is the reusable cloth sanitary napkin and panties. Stop Putting Parsley Into Vagina to Get Periods! Doctors Warn Women Against This Harmful Practice.

As the name suggests, one doesn't need to throw away the sanitary pads after it has been used, in fact, wash it, dry it and reuse it. But the reusable sanitary pads worth it? Let's figure out the steps to use these reusable pads first.

  • After you have used the pad, you can soak your cloth reusable pad in soapy water.

  • Now take the pads out of the soapy water and squeeze well. Do this a couple of times.

  • Now if you don't have a washing machine, you can put the pad under the running tap water for a few minutes.

  • Set it out to dry in strong sunlight.

  • You may want to a pack of reusable pads that you can wash at once.

Here's how you can DIY reusable cloth menstrual pad at home.

Using reusable pads may seem like a tedious job but can really help the environment big time. According to the National Family Health Survey (NFHS) over 56 percent of the Indian women use sanitary napkins. Moreover about 62 percent women still rely on a cloth during periods. Many women in India, especially in rural areas of Indian use rags during menstruation. Low-priced reusable cloth sanitary napkin seems like a better alternative.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Jan 19, 2019 04:53 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).