Yorkshire Water campaign helps Wakefield school with period education

Students at Outwood Academy City Fields are the latest to learn about sustainable period products and eradicating period poverty through Yorkshire Water and Hey Girls’ educational period campaign.

The campaign aims to improve period dignity, educate young people about sustainable, reusable period products, and find an alternative method of disposal to flushing pads and tampons down the loo, which can cause blockages in the sewer network.

Yorkshire Water’s education team have devised a programme that includes sessions on period health and wellbeing for secondary school students. As well as distributing free ‘Full Cycle’ kits, the period health education sessions feature where to access products and explain the benefits of sustainable products that can be better for the environment, the pocket and the sewer network.  

Anne Reed, social value and education manager at Yorkshire Water, said: "We are proud to be working with Hey Girls to help educate young girls in Yorkshire about reusable, sustainable period products and the benefits they bring, both environmentally and financially.

“Over 220m non-sustainable products are flushed away every year which contain plastic and take a very long time to break down, which can cause problems to the sewage network.

“The aim is not to convert everyone to reusable products, but to use them as a gateway to openly talk about period poverty and the problems flushing single-use sanitary products can cause."

The partnership will provide 20,000 reusable, sustainable period packs to a number of secondary schools across the region.

City Fields was selected to take part in the programme because blockages are a known issue in the area.

Helen Steele, assistant principal and teacher of PE at Outwood Academy City Fields, said: “Access to period products and education is a right for young women. Many young women don't attend school because they are embarrassed about being on their period.

“Yorkshire Water and Hey Girls have taken steps to support schools in talking more openly about period health and overcome the embarrassment. The education around reusable products and their effectiveness during the school day was welcome news for some students. It provided a safe space to discuss the options available to them.  

“As a school who are pushing on sustainability our students were genuinely interested in how period products can cause blockages and how they can be part of the solution.”

Kate Smith, co-founder and director of Hey Girls, said: “We are pleased that Yorkshire Water is underway with delivering educational sessions to young girls, to promote period dignity and providing them with free period products. We want to put an end to 1 in 10 people affected by period poverty in the UK and stop 49% of pupils missing an entire day at school because of their period.”