The Students’ Union at UWE

Sustainable Periods Project

The Students’ Union at UWE runs a behaviour change campaign promoting sustainable period products for the UWE community. We offered students and staff the opportunity to sign up to trial a free sustainable period product of their choice (period pants, menstrual cup, reusable pads, reusable tampon applicator). The aim of this project is to spread awareness of reusable and more sustainable period products, giving students a risk-free opportunity to trial products and remove the barrier of cost.

The Students’ Union at UWE is committed to addressing period poverty within the student community through providing free, organic, plastic-free menstrual products in all our toilets and works in partnership with UWE Bristol to provide free products across toilets at every campus site.

318 students and 25 staff members took part in our sustainable period product trial, receiving a free product (209% increase in take-up compared to last academic year.)

Annual carbon savings achieved with the initiative:

• CO2t savings 2022/2023: 1529kg (Estimated).
• CO2t savings 2023/2024: 1529kg (Estimated).     

Top 3 Learnings

1. Removing financial barriers from sustainable behaviour change initiatives can act as a great incentive.
2. Education needs to be at the heart of behaviour change, empowering students to have understanding and choice.
3. Tying together a sustainability focused project with cost of living considerations and Health and Wellbeing aims, created an engaging collaborative project.