A NEW shop selling environmentally friendly period products is set to open in Basingstoke.

Zero waste shop Heart and Compass is preparing to open in Viables Craft Centre, off the Harrow Way, offering eco-friendly, vegan products, including organic cotton tampons, plastic free reusable panty liners, and period cups.

Owner Helen Noonan is partnering with Emma Constantine to offer plastic free products. 

Writing in a blog on the website ahead of launching the new shop, Emma explained how she decided to make her periods plastic free after visiting the remote village of Poatina in Tasmania in 2018.

Taking part in a workshop by local artists, Emma learned about upcycling fabrics.

“I was so intrigued by making a period pad from old bedsheets and flannel pyjamas that I chose that,” she explained, adding: “I still have the template and sample pieces the artist gave me so that I could remember the different layers involved.

“To this day, I am still using the pad that I made on that day three years ago.”

Emma attended another online workshop last year on plastic free periods, where she discovered the shocking statistics of how sanitary products are bad for the environment and polluting the waterways.

“Admittedly, I used to flush my tampon down the toilet, not really thinking about the consequences or thinking it would somehow decompose (I now know that it can’t),” she said.

“I couldn’t believe that pads and pantyliners are flushed down the toilet too. If I’d known that tampons also contain hidden plastics, I would have stopped flushing much sooner.

“Imagining a tampon getting stuck in a drain is gross enough, but did you ever think about what you might be putting into your body?”

The environmentalist discovered the benefits of using a menstrual cup when she travelled and worked in Australia, explaining: “Worrying about needing to change a tampon or having leaks was going to just hold me back from having an adventurous time.

“I definitely struggled with wearing the cup initially, but I soon loved it because it can stay in there all day. No more awkward trips to public beach bathrooms where there is no bin or sometimes no tap to wash my hands.

“I could wear my cup and forget about it: enjoy my day whether it was on the beach or taking the kids to the park.”

Emma pointed out that the average woman uses 11,000 disposable period products during her lifetime, with estimates that 1.5 to two billion menstrual items are flushed down Britain’s toilets each year.

“What’s more depressing is that many end up the sea, in the stomachs of sea animals or washed up on beaches. This of course made me feel so guilty about flushing my tampons down the toilet so now with this education, I was then determined to not only continue with my plastic free periods, but to make reusable pads as well,” said Emma.

Heart and Compass will also stock health and beauty products including deodorant, shampoo and soap.

Helen told the Gazette: "We are starting with feminine hygiene products, soap, deodorant, shampoo etc non food products first then we will introduce household products eg dishwasher powder, then teas, spices, food products.

"The aim is to make available refill products trying to reduce single use plastics and meet people where they are at on making conscious consumer decisions."

For more information visit https://heartandcompass.co.uk/.