Is it possible to have a plastic-free period?

“Big pharmaceutical companies were on to a good thing, making a product which women were heavily reliant on. They didn’t need to innovate that much,” Poole says, adding that “it’s the most genius subscription product, because women will always come back for more each month.”

I’m not alone in my preference for tampons with applicators: 60 per cent of women prefer to use them. It is estimated over 100 billion period products are disposed of every year, and nearly all contain plastics. None of these can be recycled as they’re deemed sanitary waste.

Given the phenomenal success of DAME's Kickstarter campaign to raise funds, which hit its £20,000 target in four days (nearly £39,000 has been pledged so far), the notion of a plastic-free period has never been more timely. Their D. reusable tampon applicator is made from medical grade mediprene with in-built antimicrobial technology that helps keep it hygienic, and works with any level of tampon absorbency. The design is deliberately sleek: DAME firmly believes that women have nothing to hide.

“Creating a product that looks good in bathrooms and handbags is a further measure to normalise periods,” says Poole's co-founder Alec Mills. "For too long women have been sold on the promise of discretion: that their periods are embarrassing and dirty. Not only does this profoundly affect the way women and girls view their bodies, it’s led to little meaningful innovation in the tampon industry in years”.

So, how exactly do you use it? Poole assures me that it has been designed to have minimal impact on existing habits - but that the return for the environment is significant.  “Each time a woman switches to using this new product, she’ll prevent approximately 12,000 pieces of single-use plastic from entering our oceans. The D. works exactly like a normal applicator,” she explains.

“The only difference is that you don’t throw it away. You load it up with a non-applicator tampon, insert it, and when you withdraw it, rather than chucking it in the bin or throwing it down the loo like a large swathe of the population, you just wipe it with a piece of loo roll. Rinse it under the tap if you can, and keep it in the travel pouch until you need to use it next. In between periods, sterilise it for five minutes.

“We were worried that for some women, rinsing their applicator outside the cubicle in a public loo could be an issue, but we’ve had people that say going out there and rinsing it in public, they almost want someone to make a comment on it, there was this strange feeling of pride which they hadn’t expected."

“We hope this will be the first of a whole range of products to make the bathroom green: we want to do it in a way that minimises the impact on a woman’s life and maximises the stylishness and the design that they expect from other items in their life. There needs to be headway with nappies and so on - wipes are a big scourge on the planet and need to be massively rethought. There’s a big shift that needs to happen. But the more products like this that come into the mainstream, the more people can accept other products coming in. People who use reusable coffee cups are more amenable to using reusable tampon applicators.”

Does Poole also think it helps that people are becoming more comfortable with talking about periods, I wonder? “I don’t expect everyone to scream and shout about periods, that’s their choice - but the more we can raise girls to view it as a normal bodily function, the better,” she says. “There’s a lot of issues around periods which are getting more attention, such as period poverty and tampon tax, which is great.

“It’s such a crucial part of a woman’s life which has been sidelined and silenced for so long. The more it can be recognised that every woman needs to have access to products, be able to manage her period in a way that allows her to live her life the way she wants too, the better.”

It’s for these reasons that Dame has partnered with Bloody Good Period, a charity which gives period supplies to asylum seekers, refugees and those who can’t afford them.

You can donate a pre-made box for just £5 which will give a two-month supply of sanitary protection to a displaced person in need. The Dame Box also includes a cotton bag and travel wallet to keep the products in. You can donate as a one-off, or as a recurring monthly donation.

Five ways to make your period more sustainable

1. Check out the Women's Environmental Network. It supports the use of healthier and more sustainable alternatives to conventional sanitary products, from reusable menstrual cups to organic cotton tampons. It seeks to educate and inform people about menstrual health, and has successfully campaigned to change the way conventional products are made and sold in the UK.

2. Try a menstrual cup like the Mooncup (£21.99, Boots). It's both greener and cheaper than monthly disposables. Made of silicone, it's said to hold hold three times as much as a tampon can absorb. You can use it overnight as well as when travelling, swimming, exercising. Other options include the foldable RubyCup, Fleurcup or the Organicup. 

3. Buy yourself a pair of period pants to try on for size. Dear Kate, Pretty Clever Pants and WUKA are brands which have created knickers which double up as a sanitary pad.

4. Have a go at using a reusable pad. Lunapads can be washed in the washing machine and are stocked at Eco Menstrual. Alternatively, No More Taboo specialises in reusable menstrual hygiene products and is based in Bristol. It poses the question: why should your period cost the earth?

5. Switch to organic, biodegradable, 100% cotton tampons. Try TOTM, which is certified by the Global Organic Textile Standard and urges you to "be kinder to your vagina."

Visit wearedame.co for more information or donate to here