7 Organic Pads Putting The ‘Natural’ In Your Natural Menstrual Cycle
Did you know a menstruating person goes through more than twelve thousand sanitary pads in their lifetime?
From landfill mass to the toxic compounds, harmful fragrances, and chlorine bleach saturating them, being on the rag is quite the drag for our planet and human health.
But do organic pads work?
Not only do they help your monthly red alert flow more healthily, but they also help remove the Earth from red alert due to climate change and plastic pollution that normal menstrual products contribute to.
While sustainable period underwear and menstrual cups are our favorite eco-friendly menstrual products, we realize that some people are most comfortable with sanitary pads and organic tampons.
That’s why we’re covering your panties with the best organic cotton pads, reusable and disposable alike.
Everything we recommend to you on Sustainable Jungle is independently researched and we ask all brands to confirm their claims. To avoid waste, we test products on an as needed basis. This post contains affiliate links. If you buy something through our links, we may earn a small commission. Learn more about why we do this here.
Go With The (Heavy) Flow With The Best Natural Pads
Rael’s organic cotton menstrual pads are bloody fantastic for offering both reusable and disposable options, proving that organic cotton pads’ benefits outweigh any disadvantages (hint: there aren’t any.)
A plastic-free period is smart…and possible, thanks to Smartliners, which are made of 100% organic cotton to be kind to your privates and the planet.
Read on to learn what other organic sanitary pad brands fit our sustainable flow and how we bled the period industry to source them.
The Full List Of Organic Cotton Pads For Periods
- Rael | Visit Store
- Smartliners | Visit Store
- Cora | Visit Store
- Tampon Tribe | Visit Store
- Natracare | Visit Store
- Aisle | Visit Store
- Daye | Visit Store
1. Rael
Rael’s Organic Pads With Wings
Rael keeps it real thanks to their organic cotton pads with wings or organic liner pads.
These feature a 100% certified organic cotton cover (OCS and non-GMO), a chlorine-free natural wood pulp and high-absorbent polymer core, polyethylene (PE) and polypropylene (PP) backsheet, wings made of coated paper and a non-toxic adhesive.
Safe for all menstruation, sensitive skin, and body types, these clean pads blend high-performance and non-toxic technology with clean ingredients to stem your flow without poisoning your privates… or the planet. Win-win!
They’re designed in five sizes: petite, regular, large, overnight, and extra long organic overnight pads.
Rael also sells reusable pads, made with five moisture-wicking layers of organic cotton and totally washable.
Same-day delivery is available for period emergencies.
About Rael
Rael is for real people, regardless of their status, gender, or ethnicity.
The female-founded Korean-American company is passionate about clean menstrual products to empower women through menstrual dignity.
To give back, Rael partners with I Support the Girls, who collect and deliver bras, underwear, and menstrual hygiene products to people experiencing homelessness, impoverishment, and distress.
2. Smartliners
Smartliners’ Organic Cotton Reusable Pads
Say ‘bye’ forever to sensitive skin, bad odors, and toxins.
Like the name suggests, these liners are about as smart as it gets for the environment and your lady bits: washable, reusable, and made from 100% certified organic cotton (OCS 100 and GOTS).
With minimal bulk, Smartliners are comfy, absorbent, dry, and easy to adhere to your underwear thanks to their velcro hook and loop wings.
After using, simply fold and attach together, place in the handy travel / wash bag they come with, and toss in the eco-friendly washing machine.
At their end of life, remove the recycled velcro component and these organic cloth pads are entirely biodegradable.
About Smartliners
Canadian female owned and operated by Yasmeen Khoury, Smartliners makes all their non-toxic products in a Bangladeshi social certified factory.
Each reusable pad comes recyclable cardboard packaging and ships in recyclable content made of recycled materials.
3. Cora
Cora’s Organic Menstrual Pads
These popular purveyors of organic period underwear also make high-performing 100% organic cotton pads, rightly called the Peace-of-Mind pad to give you top leak protection.
Cora organic pads are some of the most popular certified organic cotton cover pads on the market because of their clean and dermatologist-approved ingredients, ultra absorbency, side wings, and flexibility.
Available in six different sizes depending on your flow, Cora has you covered, all without any irritating dyes, GMOs, parabens, fragrance, or chlorine.
The brand also publishes a full ingredients list of their natural, organic feminine products online, which includes some amounts of polymer, polyethylene, and silicone beyond the 100% GOTS-certified organic cotton topsheet.
About Cora
Female founded Certified B Corp Cora was started by powerhouse Molly Haywards, who believes that everyone should have access to period care—period.
That’s why with every Cora purchase, the brand donates sanitary products and body literacy resources to those who might otherwise go without. In fact, 10% of profits go to ending period poverty.
To date, they’ve donated more than 22 million products, with 75% of giving in the US dedicated to BIPOC communities.
4. Tampon Tribe
Tampon Tribe’s Organic Period Pads
Join their moon-time tribe and find out why Tampon Tribe has some of the best organic pads and tampons on the market today.
Their FDA-approved products are made of ICEA and GOTS-certified organic cotton cover and core, and have no perfumes, chlorine, dioxins, endocrine disrupting toxins, SAPS, fillers, wadding, starches, or glue (so they’re also vegan!).
Natural period pads come in day and night absorbency and each one comes wrapped in a biodegradable starch film, with adhesives made from a biodegradable polymer.
About Tampon Tribe
In Tampon Tribe’s words, “Still using period products created by men in 1979? Upgrade your period with effective, safe and plastic-free products made for you, and your body, today.”
This woman and LGBTQ-owned business supports fair labor practices and is even better than plastic-neutral. Instead of collecting a pound of ocean plastic waste for every pound used, they collect a pound of ocean plastic for each pound saved by not using plastic.
US customers who want to receive Tampon Tribe’s sustainable subscription boxes get free delivery monthly of their all-natural pads and tampons.
5. Natracare
Natracare’s Organic Feminine Pads
We’re not ovary-reacting, conventional menstrual products are toxic for our bodies and the environment.
Natracare is one of the OG organic maxi pad companies to refresh the chemical-addled feminine hygiene industry.
They offer a huge inventory of the best organic pads for heavy flow, with over ten different kinds of unscented panty liners and natural pads with wings, depending on where your cycle is at.
Not only is there less bunching and no irritation from plastics, perfumes, toxins, chlorine, or any other yucky stuff, but they’ve also got the certifications to back them up.
Vegan Society, Nordic Swan Ecolabel, MADE SAFE, and USDA Biobased all give these products the seal of approval.
All Natracare pads are also commercially compostable to EN 13432 and ASTM D6400.
About Natracare
Natracare was female-founded by spitfire Susie way back in 1989, when being an eco warrior was seldom found.
Today, the work continues. Natracare regularly improves the performance of their hypoallergenic, tested safe products, and is always sourcing new sustainable innovations to support our bodies and the Earth’s.
As members of 1% For The Planet, they support organizations combating plastic pollution, like the Marine Conservation Society and Plastic Pollution Coalition.
6. Aisle
Aisle’s Reusable Organic Cotton Pads
The feminine health aisle has never seemed less harrowing thanks to Aisle, whose reusable organic pads absorb up to 8x as much as the average disposable.
Designed in three different sizes with wings for your body type or flow, they use TransDRY® Technical Cotton for their organic cotton cover, certified by Oeko-Tex Standard 100.
The absorbent core is made of GRS-certified recycled polyester.
Our favorite is their Organic Cotton Maxi Pad, which is 10 inches long, provides leakage protection, has no bunching effect, and is available in groovy colored patterns or black.
About Aisle
Aisle is the number one Certified B Corp among brands of organic pads, with more than twice the impact score of the B Corp baseline. They are the best overall, as changemakers, and for the environment.
Their work for equal and fair access to essential menstrual products is long-standing and ongoing.
Not only are their period pads organic, but Aisle donates 2% of sales to nonprofits that address period poverty and gender equity, and supply healthy pads and period underwear to over 17,000 people in 18 countries.
7. Daye
Daye’s Organic & Non-Toxic Pads
Day(e) or overnight at that time of the month, Daye’s natural pads for periods keep you dry.
These harness the plant power of bamboo, designed with organic bamboo as the absorbent core.
What’s more—they biodegrade in 192 days, which beats the alternative that every plastic pad ever used still exists in a landfill somewhere.
The base of the pad is made of bio-based corn, to replace the toxic and eco-unfriendly plastics used in conventional pads.
Each pad is individually wrapped in that same bio-based corn.
Daye also stands out for being one of few ISO13485 certified feminine product brands, ensuring their production standards match those applied to heart stents, brain implants, and artificial limbs.
About Daye
Daye is carbon-neutral and partners with Pachama to offset carbon and combat deforestation.
They’re also Student Beans partners, offering a 20% discount to college students, saving them cash for tuition and sustainable school supplies.
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Why Use Organic Cotton Pads?
When you’re riding the crimson wave, what are the healthiest pads to use?
There are a number of reasons why organic sanitary pads are better for our health and the planet’s, ranging from chemicals used in traditional pads to comfort levels.
What are traditional pads made of?
Traditional pads may look and feel like cotton, but they’re usually made of synthetic plastics like rayon, polyester, or superabsorbent polymers (SAPs) that aren’t biodegradable and further contribute to global landfill overflow and GHGs being released.
The manufacturing process is likewise a mess, thanks to the amount of fossil fuels required to make them.
With 20 billion pads and not so sustainable tampons being used and disposed of annually just in North America alone, there’s a bulky wad of environmental issues as a result of disposable sanitary pads.
In addition to environmental woes, some of the toxins in traditional pads and potential health effects include the following:
- Dioxin: Despite being FDA-approved, even trace levels of dioxins have been linked to hormone disruption, cancer, and endometriosis.
- Pesticides: GMO cotton used in conventional sanitary pads use pesticides that are linked to neurological dysfunction, infertility, and developmental defects. The EPA has classified 7 of the 15 main pesticides used for cotton as “possible, likely, probable, or known human carcinogens.”
- Fragrances: Considered “trade secrets,” companies don’t have to disclose fragrance formulas, which are made of toxic chemical ingredients.
- PFAS: “Forever chemicals,” PFAS are linked to decreased fertility, high blood pressure in pregnant people, increased risk of certain cancers, developmental delays and low birthweight in children, hormonal disruption, high cholesterol, reduced effectiveness of the immune system—leading to decreased efficacy of vaccines—and more.
- Rayon: production of this synthetic material is so dangerous and toxic that its manufacturing is banned in the US. Are you sure you want that near your most sensitive lady bits?
- Glyphosates: Found in 80% of sanitary products, it’s a known carcinogen.
- Titanium Dioxide: A pigment used that can possibly lead to cancer, so seek organic pads without titanium dioxide.
- BPA: Comes in most plastics and can interfere with the reproductive system and contributes to cancer.
- Chlorine Bleach: a potentially cancer-causing toxic irritant that gives the pads their pristine white look.
There’s a lot of not-nice info to absorb when it comes to the reality of conventional feminine products.
Which is why when anyone asks, “Are organic pads better for you?” You can reply with a resounding “YES!”
How To Dispose Of Natural Menstrual Pads
Don’t just go with the flow and toss your certified organic cotton pads in the trash.
The reason why is that they’ll end up in a landfill somewhere becoming anaerobic, releasing potent GHGs that are no better than plastic.
So, can you compost organic cotton pads?
While home composting isn’t great since they can taint your compost with bad bacteria, you can absolutely send your organic cotton pads to the commercial compost.
There, they have the facilities to heat compost high enough to effectively decompose your natural pads.
Don’t have access to a commercial compost? Check here, or home compost your used organic cotton menstrual pads in a separate compost bin you won’t use in your garden.
If you’re using reusable period pads, just wash them before composting in your regular home bin.
And whatever you do… don’t flush your period products down the toilet. This not only clogs pipes and causes damage, but also pollutes waterways.
How We Chose The Best Non-Toxic Pads
We don’t need our menstrual products to cramp our style, which is why we took finding the best organic feminine hygiene products to heart (errr… uterus!).
Here are some of the things we looked for in the top organic non-toxic pads.
Materials:
Given this is a roundup of organic menstrual pads, we looked for… well… unscented, safe, certified organic cotton.
100% certified organic cotton, to be exact. And sometimes organic bamboo.
- Certifications: OEKO-TEX, Global Organic Textile Standard (GOTS), Italian Association for Organic Agriculture (ICEA), Organic Content Standard (OCS), USDA Biopreferred, MADE SAFE
Packaging:
This includes pad wrappers. Because our focus is on organic and not zero waste, we let plastic slide as long as it’s BPA-free. But ideally it’s biodegradable and/or paper-based.
Shipping is ideally in recyclable or compostable materials and carbon offsetting is nice.
Supply chain & green practices:
Cotton has long held a bad rep when it comes to human ethics, which is why humanely harvested cotton is a must.
These brands support fair trade certified factories, safe working environments, and above-living wages.
Bonus points to those who use renewable energy, waste reduction practices, recycled packaging, carbon offsets, and other means to reduce the eco-impact of Aunt Flo.
- Certifications: B Corporation (B Corp), fair trade, ISO 13485
Final Thoughts On Organic Cotton Pads
So, are organic cotton pads better?
It’s no ovary-reaction: they’re a must for the health of your privates and the planet.
Say goodbye to cancer-causing compounds and climate change and hello to your chemical-free flow with these non-toxic menstrual pads to go with your eco-friendly bathroom products.
Save the (period) drama and your mama (Earth) by choosing natural pads.
Share this article with fellow moon cycle sisters so they, too, can reap organic pad benefits.
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