N.S. business turns raw materials into compostable menstrual pads

A Nova Scotia company produces environmentally responsible menstrual products – that are plastic free and compostable.

A Nova Scotia business is working to revolutionize the feminine hygiene industry.

Rashmi Prakash, the founder and CEO of Aruna Revolution, says her company creates compostable menstrual products, such as pads, out of agricultural byproducts.

Prakash says she’s heard from women about their disappointment with current menstrual products on the market.

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“(They say) they’re uncomfortable, they itch, they feel really gross,’’ says Prakash. ‘In addition to that, we also recently found out that they contain heavy metals, such as lead and arsenic.”

Prakash says it was then she knew it was time for a revolution.

“We want to create disposable hygiene products that are compostable … so they turn into useful compost when you put them back into the soil. So that they’re good for our bodies and the planet,” says Prakash.

Prakash, who has a background in bio-medical engineering, says the business was created in 2020.

While working as a clinical engineer at a hospital, she says she witnessed a “massive” amount of waste being generated by the health-care industry.

“It’s really quite shocking when you look at it and you see the amount of it,” says Prakash. “It made me realize like, ‘Hey we’re healing one person today, but all of this waste that’s being generated from these procedures is harming billions of people in the future and that doesn’t make sense to me.”

And Prakash says menstrual products are among that waste.

“There’s 20 billion of these menstrual products and their single-wrap packaging ending up in landfills every single year just in Canada and the U.S. alone.”

Barbara Campbell with Natural Products Canada says that waste ends up sitting there for “600 years.”

“While they’re in the landfills, they’re shedding,” says Campbell. “And because of that, that is getting in our land, that is getting in our sea, that is getting in our air. That’s the persistent plastics issue.”

Prakash says their production facility in Dartmouth, N.S., is still in its early stages of production, but their products can already be found online and in businesses around the province.

She hopes to expand the company in the near future.

“While we’re just starting with menstrual products, we’re planning to get into diapers, medical personal protective equipment and the whole range of disposable hygiene products,” says Prakash.

“One thing that is really important for people to understand is by taking care of the environment, we’re taking care of ourselves.”

For more Nova Scotia news, visit our dedicated provincial page.