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Last Updated on February 14, 2023
Tell us if this sounds familiar. You want your public washrooms to:
✓ meet public health and safety standards
✓ be cost-effective for your business to maintain
✓ make your staff and customers happy
If you’re a property maintenance manager, a business owner, or a restaurant owner, you may be reading this blog because your public washrooms aren’t ticking ✓ all those boxes.
If so, you’ve come to the right place.
One of the best ways to achieve all three of these points is to focus on period dignity and creating period positive spaces in your public bathrooms.
What is period dignity?
Period dignity, also known as menstrual dignity, refers to shame-free and affordable access to everything a menstruator needs to manage their periods and menstrual health – from period products to hygienic menstrual waste disposal solutions.
Period dignity initiatives focus on:
- Inclusivity
- Access
- Education
- Privacy
Almost all menstrual dignity movements are hyper-focused on putting an end to period poverty and building more inclusive and equitable period positive spaces.
What is the Menstrual Dignity Act?
The Menstrual Dignity Act was signed into law with the goal and focus to combat period poverty in students through the provision of free pads and tampons in school bathrooms.
The Menstrual Dignity Act was created in Oregon to alleviate both the barriers and experience of shame that often limit menstruating students from accessing their education.
Oregon now joins a lengthening list of states that are requiring schools, businesses and public spaces to offer freely accessible period products like free-vend pads and tampons.
Visit Aunt Flow to download a legislation map with current legislation updates around period and menstrual dignity.
Menstrual and public washroom hygiene standards have evolved
Citron Hygiene has been doing its research on customer behaviours in, and expectations of, public washrooms.
- We know how people are acting in public washrooms.
- We know what people are thinking when they’re looking for a washroom to use while out in public.
- We also know what they’re saying about the best and worst washrooms they’ve ever visited.
Public washroom menstrual hygiene waste disposal is ready to evolve
Think about what we use now for menstrual waste disposal: metal (or plastic) boxes bolted to the stall walls in public washrooms. Let’s be honest — those blood boxes are as cringeworthy and outdated as Lady Gaga’s meat dress back in 2010 (*shudder*).
Citron Hygiene has the technology to bring touchless technology to your entire public washroom setup, which includes menstruation-related needs.
We provide touch-free menstrual hygiene waste disposal units that are more sanitary, more hygienic, and come with professional waste disposal and refill services.
The benefits of upgraded menstrual hygiene waste disposal units in public washrooms
You may or may not have ever used a metal blood box before, so we’ll briefly fill you in:
Once you’ve removed your used menstrual product from (you know where), you must touch the lid of the box to open it and drop your waste inside.
Unfortunately, this comes with the risk of spills, leaks, stains and smears, as waste products don’t always cooperate.
Remember: this is all happening inside the stall. That means no one can wash their hands clean before they lift the lid or after they’ve finished disposing of the waste.
Your washroom users still have to rearrange their clothes and unlock that stall door before they even get close to a sink and some soap.
For these reasons, flushing tampons and pads down the toilets happens much more often than washroom maintenance crews would like.
Public health benefits of a hygienic menstrual waste disposal system in public washrooms
Reducing the number of places dirty fingers must come into contact with in your public washrooms is a great start to eliminating the spread of germs and illnesses in your business.
If your customers have clean, sanitary options to dispose of their waste products, they’re less likely to drop them down your toilets. Many people would rather flush their sanitary napkins down the toilet than have to touch the rim of that metal blood box with their fingers.
We don’t blame them – but it’s not going to be good news for your business’s plumbing bills if that happens too often.
Flushed menstrual waste products account for two-thirds of public washroom plumbing issues.
The benefits of touchless washroom supplies are obvious
With touch-free technology that is regularly serviced and waste disposal units that are regularly professionally cleaned, you can:
✓ Reduce or eliminate your plumbing bills due to regular clogging crises
✓ Reduce or eliminate customer and staff contact with blood-borne pathogens
✓ Reduce or eliminate odors that come from unsanitary menstrual waste units
✓ Reduce or eliminate the stains visible inside the stalls
An added bonus is that you can also reduce or eliminate the suffering of individual customers or employees with the right washrooms.
Menstruation-related health concerns that clean public washrooms can help eliminate
How can your business eliminate these problems?
There’s a simple solution for businesses to help solve these problems for customers and employees:
- Provide touch-free sanitary waste disposal units customers are comfortable using.
- Provide free-vend menstrual products to help combat #PeriodPoverty
- Outsource your menstrual hygiene waste needs
How to invest in smart and sanitary public washroom technology – today
If you’re still looking for more reasons to invest in touchless products that come with professional sanitation services, you may want to move on to reading this blog here.
If you’re ready to start exploring your options for an elevated washroom experience, then we’re ready to give you all the answers.
Citron Hygiene products will keep your washrooms organized, tidy and save you space. Regularly serviced and professionally maintained – check out our products here.
Book your free consultation on our website today.
