How Banana Plant Waste Is Turned Into Sanitary Pads in India

India develops a greater number of bananas than elsewhere on the planet yet about portion of each plant goes to squander one organization is transforming that loss into biodegradable sterile cushions that could be useful to additional individuals have more secure periods with dispensable plastic cushions on the ascent might banana at any point stem save the country from piles of rubbish we visited sati to perceive how it's utilizing overall waste softie began in 2015 only about a third of women in india had access to pads and that can mean more than just discomfort you're missing out on school or work for those five days every month and that sets you back i was proud to be an indian but also was assumed that we cannot provide something of basic necessity and Kristin kagetsu set out to help without creating more plastic trash and they found the answer in farm waste just one banana plant stem can yield up to 3 000 pads according to sathi the stocks only bear fruit once so after each harvest farmers clear the fields to make room for new growth chirag desai is a researcher looking for new ways to use these leftovers the farmers are dumping it on the roadside or canal side and it will create a huge environmental as well as social problems his team has turned banana plant fibers into fertilizer fabric and even candy the market is growing for such type of natural products he shared some of his knowledge with southeast founders they stay here for one week we gave them a good training basics how to estimate the fibers and all that [Music] the first step is to cut the stalks in half workers pull the halves apart layer by layer [Music] they feed these celery-like chunks into machines that leave just the stringy fibers behind wash the fibers and dry them on a line [Music] then they're ready for a second life the founders set up stations with machines like these around the country so local farmers can extract fibers from their own crop waste we have been closely working with 18 000 of them on regular basis where we have set up different extraction units sathy pays the farmers for the fibers giving additional income to farmers that's a first part of our circular economy farmers can also use the liquid from the stems as fertilizer at the sathy factory workers feed fibers into machines that cut them into shorter pieces the next step is turning those pieces into this fluff the founders told us this part is a trade secret we do a magical process once they reach a factory convert them into a cotton-like material with our patented technology which eventually will be pressed into more thinner and thinner sheets this is the absorbent core of the pad what is happening over here is they are putting all the different layers of the pad together workers layer the banana fiber core between other sheets darun says these sheets are made from plants but wouldn't tell us which plants he says he's worried about other companies copying sathi after the pads are cut to size he tests them out from each batch using water mixed with ink and the good part is that it is spreading instead of staying here leaking out of here the material throughout the length is utilized saathi says the adhesive on the back of the pads is non-toxic but wouldn't say exactly what's in it either the pads are ready to be sanitized using light what we use over here is a uvc light which sterilize or reduce any kind of viral road finally workers package the pads so there is not much of a rocket science over here a simple packing they wrap each one in yet another secret plant-based material and seal the packets with heat the founders say the pads and all packaging are 100 biodegradable and they sent their products to a lab that confirmed this this is a packaging made out of hygiene paper with no plastic coating on it roll it up use the same tape to stick it and throw it as it is conventional pads are made mostly of plastic if all the menstruating women in india used them it would create an amount of trash 10 times the weight of the great pacific garbage patch every year saathi says if buried its pads will break down in under 6 months if they're left out in the open it's more like 18 months before disposable pads were invented people often used cloth dried plants or whatever absorbent things they could find i would not say that these are always unhygienic methods of menstruation but what makes it hygienic or unhygienic is whether the material is clean how long it is used for many in india still use cloth for their periods which can cause infections if it's not washed and dried frequently saathi sells its pads at pharmacies at specialty stores and online and for each pad the company sells it gives one away for free we take it from people who have enough and give it to those who need most of the free pads go to people in rural areas who are less likely to have access to them compared to those in cities we have successfully distributed almost 2 million pads now experts say free pads are helpful but education is also key we really need to go beyond just provision of pads now and talk about what it means to hygienically use them four to six hours is the maximum one should use and definitely change after that when sathi introduces its product to a new area it organizes talks about menstrual health for local women at one recent session tarun spoke about pads and handed them out to attendees conditions and price isn't the only issue cultural taboos can also stop people from buying pads for about five years in that time she's seen attitudes towards pads shift is [Music] since 2010 access to pads in india has risen dramatically art activism and government programs are making it easier to talk about periods be focused but about one in four women in india still don't have sanitary period supplies that's tens of millions of people but seeing how things have already changed keeps the founders going a lot of women are having safe periods the environment is not being polluted with plastic the biggest service one can do is leave a greater legacy a better world for generations to come what's better than that you.