Menstrual products are about to be much more accessible across campus. A company named OrganiCup produces a reusable menstrual cup created from 100% medical grade silicone. It hosts CampusCup, a program which offers their product for free on college campuses while supplies last.
“Periods produce a ton of waste,” Addie White, the ASUI director of sustainability, said. “They estimate that a university of our size uses over two million pads and tampons a year, which is a ton of waste. And usually, (period products) contain microplastics, which are really hard to decompose.”
OrganiCup claims its product can last for up to two years of periods, the equivalent of roughly 528 tampons.
Students have until Oct. 26 to scan the QR code found on posters around campus or click on an emailed link to sign up to receive a cup. Cups can be picked up from the Department of Student Involvement (DSI) Office after they are shipped to campus.
Students who miss the sign-up deadline are offered a promotional code, IDAHO30, which takes 30% off the $28 product. From White’s understanding, the campaign for the free menstrual cup is a one-time promotional event, but the discount code should be available for the foreseeable future.
The OrganiCup project spawned off a work-in-progress bill written by ASUI Senator Dylanie Frazier. She plans to implement free menstrual products in women’s restrooms campus-wide. Varying product prices, poorly allocated funding to on-campus menstrual product dispensers and the presence of outdated and expired products, which could result in infections, inspired her bill. Frazier is working with Director of DSI Shawn O’Neal and other UI advisors to partner with the company Aunt Flow, which creates “eco-friendly feminine hygiene products and (has) revolutionized campuses across the nation.”
Frazier is organizing a presentation to advocate her project to other ASUI senators and UI faculty. She hopes to give this presentation in the first or second week of November. If all goes according to plan, new dispensers operating through coin deposits will need to be implemented, which may take until early 2021.
“I would like to get menstrual products into all women’s, gender neutral and men’s restrooms in order to be accommodating to our LGBTQA+ community,” Frazier said. “I’m working with Senator Will Jansen Van Beek on creating more gender-neutral bathrooms and the first initiative we are going to start with is getting those products into those gender-neutral bathrooms…This is a program that we want to expand for inclusion and diversity.”
Prior to these projects, free menstrual products have been informally available at the Women’s Center on campus. It has a basket full of disposable products, so students could take what they need.
“I personally think this would be a very, very worthwhile thing to get established on our campus,” Lysa Salsbury, director of the Women’s Center, said. “Because disposable products are very expensive, and students are managing life on a very limited budget, I think that these products should be available. For people who menstruate, they are every bit essential as toilet paper.”
Carter Kolpitcke can be reached at [email protected].