Plastic free. Period.

Plastic free. Period. Promoting the use of more sustainable menstrual products.

‘The menstrual cycle’ has long been a popular issue for all manner of reasons. Whether we’re talking about how menstrual products are overpriced yet necessary, carry a tax when other non-essential, typically ‘male’ products do not or are impacting the environment negatively. Our project has focused on the latter issue, exploring the use of plastic within these products and how much waste this is creating.

Presently, our society has become increasingly concerned with the amount of ‘single-use plastic’ in our everyday lives. Consequently, this has resulted in the government introducing the 5p charge for carrier bags in shops and supermarkets, the reduction in the use of plastic straws at restaurants and bars and recently the announcement of banning the sale of single-use plastic bottles at Glastonbury Festival. Therefore, it would appear apparent that collectively our society does care about the environment and are beginning to make minor changes to help. However, individuals are unaware of the amount of plastic waste that is caused by sanitary products, with the majority of individuals having no knowledge of what these products are made of or what happens to them after they are disposed of.

We believe that providing the public with easy access to information about some of the alternative menstrual products that are on offer may lead to minor changes in attitudes about a subject considered very taboo. As a result, we believe behaviour will change regarding trying out more environmentally-friendly, sustainable menstrual products. Ultimately, our aim was to educate and encourage young people to use more sustainable period products.

The problem:

There are two angles at which to approach this problem: that popular sanitary items are harmful to the environment and also harmful to our bodies. We have decided to focus on the former idea as the plastic waste from sanitary products is having a detrimental impact on our environment.

Some facts:

• Menstrual products that are disposed of create approximately 200,000 tonnes of landfill waste every day in the UK ("Powerful Environmental Reasons To Switch To A Menstrual Cup", 2018).
• The average person throws away on average 200kg of sanitary towels, tampons and applicators in their lifetime ("London Assembly, Environment Committee", 2018).
• A conventional pad has the same amount of plastic as 4 carrier bags (“Plastic Free Periods”, 2019).
• Your used sanitary item will have a longer life-span on this earth than you do! ("Plastic Free Periods", 2019).

Research shows that 9/10 women do not know what a tampon is made out of ("The Truth About Tampos", 2019). In conversation with flat-mates regarding this project, it is apparent that women are unaware that plastic makes up the majority (90%) of an actual pad and that it is not just the plastic wrapping that it comes in (“Plastic Periods”, 2018).

Why it’s important:

Periods affect approximately 50% of the population and by age 20 a menstruating individual has had, on average, 84 periods so far in their life. Periods are unavoidable, therefore the level of waste produced is unlikely to change unless more sustainable methods are implemented. Currently, menstrual products that end up in landfill contribute to greenhouse gas emissions which in turn contributes to climate change. As a result, the environment suffers, leading to loss of habitats, changes in weather patterns and long-term environmental damage. Moreover, plastic waste from sanitary products does not only end up in landfill but also in our ocean; this pollution can cause fish, birds and other wildlife harm due to consumption and getting caught in the plastic. Ultimately, this waste ends up on our beaches with the Marine Conservation Society reporting 20 pieces of menstrual waste are found per 100 meters of UK beach (“Marine Conservation Society”, 2016).

Furthermore, sanitary products are expensive; you can save up to 94% of what you would have spent on disposables if you switch to reusables ("Plastic Free Periods", 2019). Thus, this type of behaviour change is beneficial both to the environment and to an individual.

What we did:
We designed a simple, friendly and approachable poster with key facts and simple statistics on it; 65 of these posters were positioned in accessible, relevant places around campus i.e. in women’s toilets in the Library, Oculus, Arts Centre and the SU.

Our target audience was young people (aged 18-25), mainly women, at the University of Warwick campus. This age group are more susceptible to attitude change (Hovland,  Janis, &, Kelley, 1953), hence our focus was on this group. The poster was tailored to this audience; we used non-patronising information about the alternatives, statistics, which are shown to increase persuasion and therefore behaviour change, and a QR code which enabled easy access to further information via a mobile phone; highly appropriate due to the popular use of mobile phones amongst young individuals.

What techniques we used and why:

Elaboration-likelihood model:

The posters rely on heuristic processing (the peripheral route) to introduce people to the idea of changing their attitudes to sanitary products (Petty & Cacioppo, 1986). This involves the use of simple cues, including bright, eye-catching text and pictures, to form attitudes when individuals do not have the motivation and resources to pay full attention, such as in the bathroom when individuals are often distracted or time restricted. This process involves low levels of elaboration and evaluation, hence the lack of detail and two-sided arguments, rather the poster gives short facts, paired with some examples of alternative sanitary products. Moreover, posters also contain a QR link that when scanned takes you to a website with more information, which would result in more systematic processing and a shift to the central route of thinking. This is more effortful, detailed and logical processing of more detailed information and ultimately leads to a stronger, more persistent attitude change. This central processing is more predictive of future behaviours than the peripheral route (McNeil & Stoltenberg, 1989).

We also played upon the assumption that young educated females care about the environment, arguably more than older individuals, and thus will pay attention to information that highlights a real argument for the importance of sustainable sanitary products (Petty & Cacioppo, 1979).

Facts and statistics:

The use of statistics increases the use of central processing, leading to more persistent behaviour change.

Clear facts that are easy to understand are more effective in persuading an individual to change their behaviour than scientific jargon and probabilities (Gigerenzer & Edwards, 2003). For example, we aimed to translate the abstract idea that ‘90% of a pad is plastic’, which can be hard to comprehend, into a more concrete idea that is easier to visualise such as ‘it has the equivalent of 4 carrier bags worth of plastic’.

Using questions:

We employed the use of both rhetorical questions and the action of ‘just asking’. The use of a rhetorical question has been found to increase an individual’s message processing (Blankenship & Craig, 2006). When individuals are not effortfully processing information, rhetorical questions have been found to enhance thinking and, if the message has a strong argument, individuals were more persuaded (Petty, Cacioppo, & Heesacker, 1981). Hence, our inclusion of ‘why not switch it up?’ on our poster with the expectation that individuals would not be effortfully processing the information displayed but were being exposed to a strong and important argument.

Simultaneously, we are ‘just asking’ individuals to try out something (potentially) new. Research has shown that simply asking others to do things is actually far more successful than anticipated and increases chances of compliance (Flynn & Lake, 2008). Furthermore, we employed ‘the Pique Technique’ whereby an unusual request (the suggestion of using alternative sanitary products) can often increase compliance, especially in a situation where the automatic response is refusal or would break an individual out of their schema (Santos, Leve, & Pratkanis, 1994). Individuals have to give mindful consideration to the question of ‘switching it up’ in regards to trying new products, ‘piquing’ their interest and encouraging central processing.

Use of pun:

Puns are commonly used in advertisements to grab the attention of the audience e.g. ‘enviorn-menstrually friendly’. Humour works as a tool for persuasion as it has been associated with positive attitudes in reference to advertisements (Chung & Zhao, 2003). An advantage of being a similar age to our target audience is that it enabled us to use a type of humour in a way that was appropriate and effective.

Mere exposure/repetition:

The consistent, repeated exposure to the same posters and the same information has been shown to enhance pre-existing attitudes about the topic (Zajonc, 1968). The repetition as a result of mere exposure increases the fluency of the idea, which is preferred by individuals on the receiving ends of these ideas (Reber, Winkielman, & Schwarz, 1998). Messages are also evaluated in a more positive way after moderate repetition (Cacioppo & Petty, 1989). Even from the same source, repeating a message is an effective form of persuasion; this is because individuals infer that a familiar message is the most prevent one, even if they are consciously aware that the information is from the same source (Weaver, Garcia, Schwarz, & Miller, 2007). Thus, posters were placed in the most high profile areas around campus with the intention that individuals would see these posters in different locations, ultimately enhancing persuasion.

Steps for the future:

1. Presentations for young women and girls about what sustainable sanitary products are on offer and where they can access them
2. Social media page to collate the information about various different products and their individual importance and uses. This would utilise the central route of processing as individuals can apply more attention to the information and behaviour would be more likely to change.
3. Create a community of individuals that educate others about the importance of these issues. This would create a team of like-minded individuals to work together.
4. Challenging the issue that is educating and speaking to men/individuals that do not menstruate.

References

Blankenship, K. L., & Craig, T. Y. (2006). Rhetorical question use and resistance to persuasion: An attitude strength analysis. Journal of Language and Social Psychology, 25(2), 111-128

Cacioppo, J. T., & Petty, R. E. (1989). Effects of message repetition on argument processing, recall, and persuasion. Basic and Applied Social Psychology, 10(1), 3-12.

Chung, H., & Zhao, X. (2003). Humour effect on memory and attitude: Moderating role of product involvement. International Journal Of Advertising,22(1).

Flynn, F. J., & Lake, V. K. (2008). If you need help, just ask: Underestimating compliance with direct requests for help. Journal of personality and social psychology, 95(1), 128.

Gigerenzer, G., & Edwards, A. (2003). Simple tools for understanding risks: from innumeracy to insight. Bmj, 327(7417), 741-744.

Great British Beach Clean - Marine Conservation Society. (2016). Retrieved from https://www.mcsuk.org/news/plastics-flushed-incorrectly

Hovland, C. I,  Janis I. L. , and Kelley, H. (1953) "Communication and Persuasion: Psychological Studies of Opinion Change" New Haven: Yale.

London Assembly, Environment Committee. Single‐use plastics: Unflushables (2018). Retrieved from https://www.london.gov.uk/sites/default/files/plastics_unflushables_-_submited_evidence.pdf

McNeill, B. W., & Stoltenberg, C. D. (1989). Reconceptualizing social influence in counseling: The Elaboration Likelihood Model.Journal of Counseling Psychology, 36(1), 24-33.

Petty, R. E., & Cacioppo, J. T. (1979). Issue involvement can increase or decrease persuasion by enhancing message-relevant cognitive responses. Journal of personality and social psychology, 37(10), 1915.

Petty, R. E., & Cacioppo, J. T. (1986). The elaboration likelihood model of persuasion. In Communication and persuasion(pp. 1-24). Springer, New York, NY.

Petty, R.E., Cacioppo, J.T., & Heesacker, M. (1981). Effects of rhetorical questions of persuasion: A cognitive response analysis. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 40, 432-440.

Plastic Free Periods - City to Sea. (2019). Retrieved from https://www.citytosea.org.uk/plasticfreeperiods/

Plastic periods: menstrual products and plastic pollution | Friends of the Earth. (2018). Retrieved from https://friendsoftheearth.uk/plastics/plastic-periods-menstrual-products-and-plastic-pollution

Powerful Environmental Reasons To Switch To A Menstrual Cup. (2018). Retrieved from https://www.organicup.com/blog/powerful-environmental-reasons-to-switch-to-a-menstrual-cup/

Reber, R., Winkielman, P., & Schwarz, N. (1998). Effects of perceptual fluency on affective judgments. Psychological Science, 9(1), 45-48.

Santos, M., Leve, C., & Pratkanis, A. (1994). Hey buddy, can you spare seventeen cents? Mindful persuasion and the pique technique. Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 29, 755-764.

The truth about tampons. (2019). Retrieved from https://www.totm.com/improving-lives-hub/truth-about-tampons/

Weaver, K., Garcia, S. M., Schwarz, N., & Miller, D. T. (2007). Inferring the popularity of an opinion from its familiarity: A repetitive voice can sound like a chorus. Journal of personality and social psychology, 92(5), 821.

Zajonc, R. B. (1968). Attitudinal effects of mere exposure. Journal of personality and social psychology, 9, 1.