Introducing PLANERA, the world's first certified flushable pad | AD

I remember my first period sat in a Year 7 Geography lesson, I felt a warm surge between my legs and quickly excused myself. A little unexpected, I was one of the first in my friendship group to start, I remember looking down at the blood on my underwear, stuffed some toilet paper into my pants and slipped back into class to whisper into my friend’s ear that the time had come with a smug look on my face as if i’d graduated the ranks.

And so was my enrollment into menstruation that evening post-school as I sat in my family bathroom trying to insert a tampon with a mirror propped up in front of me with a confused look on my face. Plastic tubes (super super plus ones), and their packets, plastic pads and their wrappers soon found their permanent home in the front pocket of my school bag along with a lancome juicy tube.

Tampons were the norm until in my first year of uni I invested in a mooncup. Menstrual cups really weren’t well known at the time of purchase and I don’t remember what influenced my decision, but, I remember beginning to understand there was a different way to do a period.

Since then, with a deeper understanding of levels of waste (did you know that women are thought to use ​more than 11,000 disposable menstrual products in their lifetime), I’ve moved all the products I use in my menstrual cycle to products that help lower the amount of waste I’m creating. With a heavy flow, a pad is needed for back up but my relationship with cloth pads has been ropey as I feel like they are not long enough and they seem to rotate around my underwear so have been in need of something more substantial and as always without the unnecessary chemicals. When Planera contacted me I jumped at the chance to give their products a try.

Planera has designed a flushable pad to break this waste cycle. PLANERA's pads have been successfully and independently tested in accordance with the UK's water industry specification for flushability testing (WIS 4-02-06) because let’s face it we all used to flush those ‘flushable’ Andrex wipes as kids that claimed they were but then my plumber uncle would say otherwise.

The pad breaks down in two parts. First, with the hydraulic action of your toilet flush, the layers of the pad get pulled apart and can start making its way down the drain line. Then, the 3mm cellulose fibres loosen and break apart.

I got to try a box for my last period and was completely fascinated. It felt like a huge novelty to be able to put it in the toilet, so much that it almost felt wrong- but you can see how it works on their website. I loved not having pads lying around and wondering how to dispose of them or waiting until I had a full load to wash them. Right now they only have one size of pad available. A winged regular-sized pad, that has medium-heavy absorbency. They plan to expand the range into long night pads and smaller liners but I actually found the size that arrived to be perfect for my needs. The pad itself was so soft and I felt it covered the majority of my underwear which I liked without it being bulky.

I think it’s important to note, and they mention on their website that the glue to hold the pad to your underwear is not like the glue you may be used to from other pads. Just like there are additives put into shampoo to make it foamy, and body wash to make it scented many of which are often doing more harm than good when switching to more natural products often the absence of these things, shampoo bars that don’t foam as much, for example, make us question whether something is as good. Planera has worked hard to make sure their adhesive is non-toxic and water-dispersible, and while it may not be as sticky it stayed in place completely fine and worked just as well!

Here are a few reasons you may want to make the switch:

1. +15% more absorbent than market-leader

2. Never have to touch a dirty bin again

3. Plant based & vegan friendly

4. Zero microplastics - Over 3 million tonnes of microplastics are created from pads alone and so I love their mission to turn this around.

5. Fragrance free

6. Disappears in days not centuries- The pad fully disappears in 30 days not 500 years.

7. Materials are all sourced in the UK, Europe and USA and their factory is based in East London. 

The pads will be launched this November, take a look on planera’s website for more information and to sign up to be the first to know about their release.