Zero Waste bleeding

I lied. In my first Eco Tip post on Instagram I said that getting a bamboo toothbrush was the first swap I did in my journey towards Zero Waste. In a way this is true - this was the first conscious swap I did.

But way  before then, back in 2012, I made another swap - I got myself a reusable menstrual cup. 

At the time, I wasn’t aware of the Zero Waste movement. I was barely aware of where my recycling went. I only switched to a menstrual cup because I wanted to save money.

At the time I still lived in Italy, where reusable menstrual products hadn’t landed yet. But my friends from London had mentioned this mysterious period cup to me, and I became intrigued. So when I visited them in July 2012, I went to Boots and got myself a Mooncup (which at the time was the only option). It costed me a mere £25 and I was exited to try it.

It took me a while to get used to it. In fact, it took me several months. At the beginning I was terrified that it would leak, and I would use it together with a pad (which clearly defeated the purpose of producing less waste). I also found it very hard to insert - it wasn’t until someone showed me how to fold it like a funnel that I finally started using it consistently.

I used my Mooncup for about 5 years and never went back to disposable products. In the meantime, I also started learning about Zero Waste and understood the benefits of using a menstrual cup over tampons and pads for environmental reasons.

When I moved to New Zealand in 2016 I was on the hunt for a new menstrual cup as the one I had was starting to become worn out and more uncomfortable as my body changed (hello, thirties). 

In my early days in Wellington I attended a Zero Waste Expo, where two lovely ladies had a stall and were promoting a New Zealand-made menstrual cup called The Hello Cup.

After about 24 seconds of chatting to the two lovely founders, I was sold.

Let me list the main reasons why the Hello Cup is amazing:

• It comes in a variety of beautiful pastel colours and is packaged in a cardboard tube with an inside flower pattern. So it’s basically pretty af.

• It’s made of medical-grade TPE (thermoplastic elastomer) which is recyclable in New Zealand (and globally), as opposed to silicone. It’s also FDA-approved and hypoallergenic.

• It has a scheme that allows you to return your cup once you’re done with it (after at least 5 years, whoo!), and they will recycle it and make new cups out of old cups. Badass. 

• The Hello Cup supports people and organisations who are working towards improving people’s lives and making the planet a better place (have a look here). Yay business ethics.

• It also doesn’t drag your soul out when you remove it. My favourite thing about the Hello Cup is that the rim folds inward, so it still prevents spillage but it doesn’t scrape the inside of your vagina when you take it out, as opposed to the Mooncup. Surely that’s a plus.

I’ve used the Hello Cup for almost 4 years now and I love it. It’s cute, comfortable, sustainable as, it doesn’t leak, and I would do the splits with it if only I were able to.

I still use it on a regular basis, however in the past few months I have also been introducing different period products into my life. Stay tuned if you want to know what they are!