The non-profit also offers vital menstrual health and hygiene education

Spotted: Since the 19th century, when dedicated period care products first emerged, menstrual pads and tampons have evolved tremendously. Now, the majority of menstruators favour the disposable items we see on supermarket shelves, and although they're extremely convenient, they're also a huge source of plastic pollution, with the average pad containing up to 90 per cent plastic. With 800 million people around the world experiencing their periods every day, that adds up to huge volumes of plastic waste destined for landfill (or our oceans).

This is particularly an issue in countries like Nepal, which have limited recycling infrastructure. Now, a non-profit called Sparśa - which is a part of Nepali-European NGO NIDISI - has a much greener alternative. Recognising the growing issue of plastic pollution within the country, as well as the huge volumes of underutilised agricultural waste, Sparśa developed fully biodegradable menstrual pads made from banana stem fibres.

Banana trees only produce one round of fruit in their lifetimes, so after every harvest, farmers cut down the trees to make space for the next, leaving behind 45 to 50 kilogrammes of bark fibre for every tree. Sparśa uses that fibre to create the absorbent layer of its pads, and any leftover organic waste is turned into compost and returned to the grower. The top layer is then made from non-woven cotton sourced from India, while the bottom is made from locally sourced cornstarch bioplastic.

As well as helping the environment, Sparśa is also committed to tackling the lack of understanding and social stigma that surrounds periods, which is a particular issue in Nepal. Any money made that isn't funnelled directly back into sustaining the business goes towards menstrual health and hygiene education and advocacy projects for women's rights.

This includes the Sparśa Ambassador Program, where the organisation trains local young people to become ambassadors for menstrual health and hygiene, so they can bring that education back to their communities. As Co-Founder and Chairwoman Dipisha Bhujel explained to Springwise, in Nepal, "we have a lot of restrictions and practices that really violate our rights to education, to freedom." By enabling access to clean menstrual products, as well as essential information on periods, Bhujel and the Sparśa team hopes they can change that.

Sparśa is also a part of the PlantPad Consortium at Stanford University - a network of researchers, innovators, and social enterprises - which was set up to share knowledge and resources to tackle period poverty. Part of the Consortium's research involves making these sustainable ideas more cost-effective.

Last year, Bhujel won the Iris Project's Stem Prize on behalf of Project Sparśa. Moving forward, Bhujel shared that Sparśa wants to ensure its findings and methods are open to everyone, so that others around the world can use them as the blueprint for their own eco-friendly projects.