Sanitary Pads...Made Out of Bananas?
It's not every Harvard Business School grad who puts her degree to use making sanitary pads out of banana trees.
It's not every Harvard Business School grad who puts her degree to use making sanitary pads out of banana trees. But that's exactly what Elizabeth Scharpf is doing, as part of a new push to produce affordable sanitary supplies for women around the world.
"I was on a trip to Mozambique a few years ago when I heard that women were staying home from work because they couldn't afford sanitary pads," says Scharpf. "I was shocked. Then I was kind of outraged." She later learned that the problem spans the globe. Let's face it: Not every town in the world has an entire Walmart aisle devoted to tampons.
So Scharpf started looking for solutions. In 2007, she founded a nonprofit called SHE (Sustainable Health Enterprises), then began doing her homework. Recently the group launched its first project: helping women in Rwanda set up their own businesses manufacturing sanitary pads from banana-tree fibers. Why Rwanda? "There's a real need there, and the country has the largest percentage of women in government in the world, so we knew we'd have support," says Scharpf. Why banana trees? "Imported raw materials were driving up the price of pads, so we started looking into cheaper local options," she says. To do so, Scharpf experimented with materials ranging from cassava leaves to cornstalks to potato roots. Banana-tree fibers won the day. An added bonus: Farmers get to turn banana-tree trunks—which usually get chucked in the trash—into a cash crop.
Rwanda is just the beginning, says Scharpf. Eventually, she plans to expand across Africa and into Southeast Asia and Central America. If you'd asked her a few years ago if she'd be helping people make sanitary pads out of banana trees, she says, laughing, "I would have thought, No." But the job has its appeal. "I knew I wanted to find solutions to social problems," she says, "and I'm excited about what I do every day."
Learn more about Sustainable Health Enterprises at SHEinnovates.com.
Stay In The Know
Get exclusive access to fashion and beauty trends, hot-off-the-press celebrity news, and more.
Abigail Pesta is an award-winning investigative journalist who writes for major publications around the world. She is the author of The Girls: An All-American Town, a Predatory Doctor, and the Untold Story of the Gymnasts Who Brought Him Down.
-
Sabrina Carpenter's Micro Shorts Are a Slice of Fashion History
She was brave to trot it out at the height of winter.
By Kelsey Stiegman Published
-
Tom Parker Bowles Says Stepfather King Charles Could be "Fantastic" at Another Job if He Wasn't Monarch
Just imagine.
By Kristin Contino Published
-
Cartier Celebrates 100 Years of Trinity With a Miami Pop-Up
A look inside the Art Basel event.
By Michaela Bushkin Published
-
PSA: Amazon Is Having a Secret Sale on Weighted Blankets
Couldn't we all use a little sedative action right now?
By Kelsey Mulvey Published
-
The Iconic House from "The Golden Girls" Has Been Put on the Market for the First Time Ever
This is MAJOR.
By Kelly Corbett Published
-
The Prints by Black Women Artists Your Walls Have Been Missing
You're going to need a lot of Command strips for this haul.
By Bianca Rodriguez Published
-
All of the Moons That Are Expected In 2020
Keep your eyes on the skies this year.
By Nathalie Kirby Published
-
A Super Pink Moon Will Be Visible Tonight
It's the biggest, brightest supermoon of the year.
By Isabel Garcia Published
-
Blog Crush: The Bloggess
Jenny Lawson is hilarious, snarky, witty, totally inappropriate, and "Like Mother Teresa, Only Better"...and she's our Blog Crush of the Week, this week and every week. We first stumbled upon her on Twitter and plotted ways to make her our best fr...
By Diana Vilibert Published
-
Chrissy Teigen Says Nothing Else Compares To This Cozy Barefoot Dreams Blanket
"I use mine 365."
By Jasmine Gomez Published
-
17 Books About Fashion Your Coffee Table Is Missing
The perfect low-key accent piece.
By Bianca Rodriguez Published