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Incinerators for sanitary napkins
In a first-of-its-kind initiative, the Department of Women Development and Child Welfare (WDCW) will be setting up incinerators for disposal of sanitary napkins across the States.
In a first-of-its-kind initiative, the Department of Women Development and Child Welfare (WDCW) will be setting up incinerators for disposal of sanitary napkins across the States.
The first lot of incinerators, which will be set up at state homes, rescue homes, service homes and Anganwadi centres, arrived at the WDCW head office in Yousufguda.
Rajalaxmi, regional deputy director of WDCW said, “The department supplies sanitary pads to students but, disposal is a problem. The incinerators would be used at the Polytechnic College and Anganwadi Centre and later would be extended to the 35 state homes.”
Developed by social entrepreneurs, Prashant Lingam and Aruna Kappagantula, the incinerators come in two sizes—the smaller one for individual families and the bigger one in schools, colleges, hospitals, hostels and prisons.
Prashant informed, “Incinerators for schools and colleges are made with 200 litres oil drums. About 200 sanitary pads can be burnt at one go and the ash gets collected in the lower chamber. A 6 ft iron shoot makes it pollution free and is the answer to clogged drains.”
The cost of the incinerator is Rs 4,000 and is a one-time investment said Prashant. He adds, “The electric incinerators are costly and there are maintenance issues. The Administrative Staff College, EFLU and private schools have shown interest but, our aim is to convince every household to go for one as 50 per cent of the drainage problem is due to sanitary pads.”
Concurring with Prashand, Aruna said, “Chemicals like polyacrylate in sanitary pads absorb the water in the drains and bulge nine times. On an average, a woman uses 12 sanitary pads a month and 36 million women use sanitary pads every month across India.”
The city’s waste is being disposed at Jawaharnagar dump yard and it is the manual scavengers who pick the sanitary pads by hand and as a result expose themselves to Hepatitis B and C. According to a recent study by Nielsen, 432 million soiled pads weighing 9000 mega tonnes cover a landfill spread over 24 hectares.
