When it comes to promoting a more eco-friendly lifestyle, particularly in the matter of plastic waste management, there is one angle that is often not discussed due to its taboo nature. Yet, as with any problem that we do not talk about, silence does not stop it from impacting our lives.

In their special report, National Geographic estimates that in the US alone, over the course of a lifetime, a single menstruator will use somewhere between five and 15 thousand pads and tampons. A vast majority of these products end up producing waste that includes wrappings and packaging.

This is a problem that is prevalent on a global level as the use of disposable period products have become synonymous with the modern lifestyle. It is the reason why Indonesia-based Perfect Fit aims to tackle the waste issue by providing reusable period products for menstruators in the country.

“Single-use pads are made of 90 per cent plastic and is unable to degrade in Indonesia’s insufficient waste management infrastructure. All the pads that have been used many years ago are not properly degraded and ended up causing microplastic pollution,” explains co-founder Tungga Dewi in an interview with e27. She estimated that there are eight billion disposable pads polluting landfills, rivers, and beaches in Indonesia.

The startup’s products range from reusable period underwear (that can be worn on its own without other supporting products such as tampons or menstrual cups) and cloth pads. Despite the gravity of the problem itself, environmental risk is just one of the challenges that the startup aims to tackle: they also aim to address health concerns from using single-use period products and offer a wider variety of options for customers.

In the global market, reusable period products such as menstrual cups have been gaining popularity in recent years. But for this product to gain popularity in Indonesia, there is one particular hurdle.

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“Using cups remains culturally inappropriate for many Indonesians because we are not accustomed to tampons. This is why we decide to go with period underwear; this might be something that is more acceptable for Indonesian women as it is not internally worn,” says co-founder Riesa Putri.

Statistically speaking, she elaborated, only five per cent of period products users in Indonesia are using reusable period products –out of this number, less than one per cent is using menstrual cups. Perfect Fit believes that they will have a greater chance of succeeding if they are going with the reusable version of products that are already popular in the market.

“We see this as an underserved market with a high potential,” she stresses.

Women helping women

Perfect Fit is an example of a startup that started off as a non-profit project. The co-founders met when they were both working at Kopernik, a non-profit organisation in Indonesia that aims to reduce poverty in rural areas.

By the time, they were involved in a project that aims to educate underprivileged young women in Ruteng, East Nusa Tenggara (NTT) –the southernmost province in Indonesia and one of the least developed in the archipelago–  about reproductive health. As part of this project, the co-founders worked together with underprivileged women in the area to produce cloth pads to be introduced to the young women who are taking part in the educational programme.

“At first, we did not intend to sell the pads, but then we began to see demands from local communities for this product. It reminded them of what their mother’s generation used to wear,” Dewi explains. “… especially since [single use] period products are not as accessible in the area.”

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Fast forward to 2020, the co-founders began to see an opportunity to turn this into something that is both impactful and profitable. According to statistics, the feminine hygiene products market in Indonesia is currently US$1.5 billion –and this number is expected to continue to grow in the next five years.

So they discussed with the executives at Kopernik about turning the project into an enterprise; the co-founders immediately received the green light as the organisation is always open for their solutions to be used by the wider society –in order to create a greater impact.

To achieve this, Perfect Fit developed a buy-one-give-one model where every purchase of period underwear –which is marketed towards urban consumers in Indonesia– will support the distribution of cloth pads for underprivileged communities in NTT.

“We’re currently focusing in this region but we already have partners in Celebes and Papua,” says Dewi.

Finding that perfect fit

Perfect Fit is definitely not the first company to introduce reusable period underwear. North American brands such as Thinx and Australian brands such as Modibodi has gained international popularity with their line of reusable period underwear in recent years. What are the lessons that Perfect Fit can learn from these companies and their success?

“Interestingly, if we look at the case studies of these companies, because the Western market is more accustomed to tampons, their transition process to period underwear is relatively harder. Yet Modibodi was able to grow by 300 per cent in the first years of their establishment. The same also happened to Thinx … they eventually ended up having the majority of their shares being acquired by Kimberly-Clark,” explains Putri.

“This gives us hope as, in Indonesia, 95 per cent of customers are already accustomed to using pads … so the transition process shouldn’t be too hard,” she stresses.

As the popularity of reusable menstrual products continues to rise, we also begin to see mainstream fashion brands such as Cotton On and Uniqlo launching their own line of period underwear. But Perfect Fit remains confident in the fact that their products are locally made in Indonesia and the social impact angle of their brand.

“It actually gives us a validation that brands as big as Uniqlo and Cotton On would even be willing to enter this range. We have to claim our portion in the market,” Putri stresses.

“Even before this became a trend, we were already deeply invested in the movement to eliminate period poverty. We do not do this just because it is trendy,” Dewi adds.

From their headquarter in Bali, Perfect Fit is being run by a team of six people. With Kopernik co-founders Toshi Nakamura and Ewa Wojkowska as their advisors, the startup is working together with a group of underprivileged women in NTT to produce their reusable menstrual products.

The startup has been supported by EUR150,000 (US$164,000) grants that they received from the Netherlands to support their transition process to become a business. But this year, Perfect Fit has begun to fundraise for their pre-seed funding round.

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Image Credit: Perfect Fit

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