One of the “ewww” factors for public restrooms can be the improper disposal of feminine care items. Sometimes they are thrown on the floor; other times they are not wrapped up before depositing in the receptacle, if there is even one to be found. Often times, the receptacle itself is soiled from previous use, making it unsanitary to touch. And as the puberty age steadily drops, many elementary school restrooms that would benefit from a receptacle don’t have one.

What do we do when we come across a situation like this? You know the drill. It’s time to switch out your tampon or pad – so you head to the closest stall to take care of business. After you remove the product – what’s the first thing you do? You reach for the roll of toilet paper, wrap the tampon or pad up, and toss it out. Simple enough, right? What if we told you that this seemingly harmless ritual cost us 141,666 trees per year – and that’s just in the United States alone? Yowza. Color us totally shocked. It’s scary, but true. There’s got to be a better way, right? Right.

So, after visiting a public restroom and being pleasantly surprised to find a new way to help keep bathrooms sanitary, I had to share. They had installed a dispenser providing each user their very own sanitary disposal bag. Simply grab a bag, insert your used item (tampon, pad, panty liner, menstrual cup, etc.), tie and toss in the trash. No more touching dirty receptacles! (Can we get a hooray?!)

Once I realized how much cleaner and more pleasant this one small tweak made my restroom experience, I decided to add this to our offerings at Be Prepared, Period. A sanitary disposal bag helps to solve this issue by providing a clean and discreet way to handle your used products.

Be Prepared Period is thrilled to announce our new partnership with MaskIT Feminine Disposal Pouches. This fantastic product makes removing and disposing of your products easy, clean, discreet, and best of all – earth-friendly! It’s made of an alternative to regular plastic, which is compostable and a whole lot nicer to the earth than our tried-and-true TP habit. A product that makes your life easier, and helps to reduce your footprint? Yes, please!

So say goodbye to the stress and the fuss that disposing of your products can cause – and say hello to a simplified process! We’ve rounded up some quick and helpful tips to how to handle feminine product disposal:

• Always wrap up soiled feminine care products…do not just drop them in a waste receptacle. To help with this, keep a few disposal bags in your purse or backpack to take with you when you use the restroom. That way, you never have to worry about getting caught without an answer!
• Once wrapped, toss used pads and tampons in a trash can or receptacle that is out of reach of pets and small children.
• Avoid touching used products, since contact contains the risk of potentially harmful blood borne pathogens
• NEVER flush products down the toilet (including tampons and applicators) down the toilet. These products are made to absorb moisture, and can expand to ten times their original size. Translation: they can do a number on plumbing!
• Make sure to wash your hands as soon as you’re done handling your used sanitary products.

Not only are we thrilled to announce our partnership with MaskIT Feminine Disposal Pouches – but now you can find them in our amazing Period 2 Go Kits, too. This fantastic product makes removing and disposing of your products easy, clean, discreet, and best of all – they greatly reduce waste! All the convenience you’ve come to love in our kits, now with the added bonus of earth-friendly disposable pouches. A match made in heaven? We think so.

Remember – small acts can change the world. (And your life!) By switching a few of our regular habits to more earth-friendly ones, they can make a difference. Never underestimate your ability to make an impact!

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Check out our Info on Periods & Puberty page for more helpful information OR stop by our PeriodTalk forum to get answers to the questions you’ve been wondering about.