Technical Brief No. 1 on Menstrual Hygiene Safe Disposal: Observations from Menstrual Waste Disposal Practices in Shared and Public Toilet Spaces (India)

With increasing sanitary pad use, incinerators are a popular technology solution to handling menstrual waste in institutional settings such as schools, as well as in community and public toilet sites. Incinerator technologies in India vary widely, and include simple fuel-assisted burning chambers made of brick, tin or terracotta, small-scale electric incinerators, large and mid-sized commercial electric incinerators, and bio-medical incinerators. In India, incinerators are gaining in popularity as they potentially offer a complete on-site menstrual waste management solution. While incineration requires that menstrual waste is separated from other solid waste for treatment, it need not always involve the various steps required for solid waste management in terms of transportation of segregated waste, secondary segregation, storage, treatment and final disposal. Further, given the socio-cultural norms around seeing and handling menstrual blood, incinerators are one solution to minimize handling of such waste. The primary study was done in Ahmedabad (by SEWA), Coimbatore (by PSG) and Delhi (by WaterAid India) with women who used public and community toilets in May-August 2018. The purpose of the on-site work was to understand their preferences and challenges related to the use of public facilities during menstruation, and their preferred design of public facilities that will make disposal of used products more convenient, and their preferences regarding incineration as a disposal method. The design and development of effective technologies to manage menstrual waste on-site depends upon understanding common practices and preferences. The study found that sanitary pad use was prevalent in urban areas, and that women accessing public toilets do change and discard their used materials in these public sites. However, public toilets were often poorly equipped with discrete and safe disposal options. Women expressed preference for discrete on-site disposal, mechanical collection and handling of waste, reliable female caretakers, well-lit toilet stalls that offered privacy, water and soap for washing, paper to wrap used materials before throwing. Women had mixed views about thermal treatment of menstrual waste. Those in favour, viewed incineration as a convenient technology to deal with menstrual waste on site in an efficient manner. Other expressed discomfort with burning menstrual waste due to socio-cultural norms related to menstrual waste or expressed concerns over the smoke released from incinerators during combustion. The findings from this study reiterate the need for responsive pubic sanitation facilities that cater to the menstrual hygiene needs of women in low and middle income settings. The findings also point to the need for facility design and operational guidelines, and waste appliance standards.