Complicated plastics: addressing taboo waste streams to promote user dignity and sustainable consumption

The growing use of ‘complicated plastics,’ particularly menstrual products, is on one side critical for human dignity, education and mobility, while on the other side creates challenges for sustainable consumption and environmental protection.

Although there are growing efforts to increase access to menstrual products globally, there is a significant gap in attention to the lack of adequate disposal and waste management systems to handle the expansion of product use.The purpose of this interdisciplinary project is to assess how poor menstrual waste management leads to negative impacts for users, sanitation systems and the environment, with data from unplanned settlements in Nairobi, Kenya, where sanitation services are inadequate and menstruation taboos are persistent.

Drawing on systems thinking and mixed methods the study will:i) assess gaps in national sanitation and environmental policies and plans; ii) examine the market of complicated plastic products, including health and environmental risks, andiii) identify disposal challenges for menstrual users as well as waste management barriers and environmental implications faced by sanitation service providers.

The findings of this study will advance understanding of the challenges for sustainable consumption related to complicated plastics in order to inform policy, identify technological interventions for sanitation practitioners, and raise public awareness about an otherwise hidden and forgotten sustainability challenge.