More Than Menstrual Disposal: Disruptive Brand MaskIT’s Massive Impact

Aside from re-educating the narrative on menstruation, and inspiring entrepreneurs everywhere to create mission based businesses from the heart, changing lives in both big and small ways is at the core of the mindful brand and is something Shallan Ramsey has done all her life.

Founded in 2013, MaskIT provides the safest, most sanitary method of disposal for menstrual hygiene items to date, allowing women to remove, enclose, seal, and discard their menstrual items in a clean and easy way.

MaskIT products help to reduce exposure risks in “away from home” restrooms, reduce costly plumbing problems, and improves overall user experience, but the company’s impact can be felt far beyond the restroom.

In every box of MaskIT, you’ll find a little surprise – an uplifting note bathed in love, gratitude, and acceptance. In addition to the company’s #MessagefromMaskIT initiative, Ramsey personally signs thank you notes to their customers to express her appreciation. The best part is this is just one of the many ways the menstrual disposal company is making a measurable difference.

As a member of the Advisory Council for the End Period Poverty campaign, Ramsey’s passion for period positivity is inspiring, as she helps to normalize the conversation around menstruation, while also educating and advocating for access to the menstrual care items and disposal solutions that are needed in away from home restrooms.

“As part of ISSA’s End Period Poverty Campaign, we met with the Gender Equity Policy Council at the White House a few weeks ago,” Ramsey shares. “The goal was to educate them around these issues and advocate for menstrual equity. We also discussed health concerns and various other problems associated with improper disposal of menstrual items,” she continues.

Ramsey explains that when menstrual items are flushed, they don’t just disappear. Instead, they cause plumbing issues, clog pipes, destroy grinders and then end up at wastewater treatment facilities where they have to be fished out and then ultimately hauled off to landfills.

The tampons that end up in the ocean are polluting the waters and harming marine life.

In fact, the Ocean Conservancy’s International Coastal Cleanup reported collecting almost 18,000 used tampons and applicators from beaches around the world in a single day in 2004.

“People have been uncomfortable talking about menstruation for way too long. It is time for the stigma to end. Toilet paper is not sufficient, nor was it ever intended for disposing of menstrual items” referring to one of the more common ways that menstruators dispose of period products. They wrap them in toilet paper before throwing them in the trash bin, if there is one available, or they end up flushing it down the toilet – neither of which are economically viable nor hygienic. “If we could get just 10% of tampons covered in MaskIT rather than toilet paper, in the U.S. alone, we could save 140,000 trees annually,” she continues.

Every year in the United States, over 31 million trees are cut down to feed the toilet paper manufacturing industry, which directly contributes to deforestation, soil erosion and loss of forest biodiversity. With a goal to challenge this, MaskIT is partnered with non-profit organization One Tree Planted, which means that every time you purchase a MaskIT product, one tree gets planted.

This initiative is extremely important to Ramsey and the team at MaskIT as trees play such an important role in our planet. From cleaning the air we breathe, filtering the water we drink, and providing habitat to over 80% of the world’s terrestrial biodiversity, forests also provide jobs to over 1.6 billion people, absorb harmful carbon from the atmosphere, and are key ingredients in our world’s medicines. To put it simply, MaskIT’s mission is to improve the lives of menstruators, save trees, and normalize the period.

A survey in 2021 found that more than 7 in 10 female teenage students had questions about their periods, while nearly 8 in 10 agreed that they were taught more about the biology of frogs than of the human female body in school. These sorts of statistics are exactly what encouraged Ramsey to create MaskIT’s Puberty Education program for girls.

”Part of what we’re doing to educate around periods is making it a priority for our instructors to talk to young girls about what to do with their items afterwards, because it’s a piece of the conversation that’s been completely left out,” says Ramsey. “This gives the instructor an opportunity to address why one should refrain from flushing any period products down the toilet and why it’s important to handle your items with care,” she continues.

Ramsey and other members of the End Period Poverty Campaign were on Capitol Hill at the end of March to advocate for legislation that would require schools across the country to provide free access to menstrual care items and disposal solutions in their restrooms. “We believe that all students should have freely accessible menstrual items and disposal solutions in restrooms at school, and having these items freely accessible at school will also help combat period poverty in our country,” she asserts.

Throughout the years, Ramsey shares that MaskIT has sent out close to 50,000 free student Puberty Education kits which include one natural cotton pad, one natural cotton tampon, one disposal bag each for the pad and tampon, along with a charming bracelet, educational brochure, and instruction card.

“I am grateful to have had the opportunity and the platform to advocate for menstruators in Washington D.C. alongside other amazing industry leaders. I believe the lack of access to what menstruators need in “away from home restrooms” is a gender equity issue. The stigma around menstruation needs to end. There is still so much work to be done but I am hopeful that our collective efforts will make a difference,” she adds.

To be a part of the conversation and join Shallan Ramsey and other leaders on their journey towards period positivity, be sure to visit MaskIT’s website, LinkedIn and Instagram page today.

Article presented by Mindful Agency