Yorkshire Water partners with Hey Girls to provide free period products in school campaign

• Yorkshire Water partners with Hey Girls to improve period dignity across the region
• Partnership will provide 20,000 reusable period packs to selected Yorkshire secondary schools
• Roll out education roadshow about period health and reducing lost school days
• Project to stop 220m period products per annum going into sewers or landfill

Yorkshire Water has announced a new partnership with Hey Girls, the social enterprise organisation set up to eradicate period poverty, to provide 20,000 reusable, sustainable period packs to selected secondary schools across the region. 

It’s part of a wider education programme 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.  The team will be delivering the education programme to a selected number of secondary schools from September.  As well as distributing period health starter kits,  the period health education sessions will 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.

Nicola Shaw, chief executive office of Yorkshire Water said:  “Our education team developed and delivered a pilot scheme last year and the feedback from teachers and pupils was really positive.  We wanted to extend this pilot as part of our wider education programme as we were quite shocked by the number of important school days lost due to period dignity and anxiety.

“Our association with Hey Girls will help us to introduce pupils to alternative, plastic-free period products and encourage reusable, sustainable alternatives.  This also reduces the number of period products being flushed away and potentially blocking the network.”

Hey Girls operates on a buy one, give one principle so that for each eco-friendly product purchased, a second is gifted by the social enterprise.  Hey Girls have donated over 30 million period products to schools, youth groups, women’s centres, homeless shelters and food banks since its launch in 2018.

Yorkshire Water has purchased 10,000 period starter packs which include reusable 2-night pads, reusable 2-day pads, a single reusable pant-liner, and biodegradable travel bag.  Hey Girls has matched this to create a total of 20,000 packs.  The education roadshow roll-out will include a session about period health, care of products and an alternative to flushing for other single-use period products.

Kate Smith, Co-Founder and Director of Hey Girls, said:  “We are pleased that Yorkshire Water has decided to join our mission to promote period dignity providing young people 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.”

It is hoped that the Hey Girls partnership will raise awareness about the safe disposal of period products.  Previous campaigns have successfully resulted in a reduction of blockages caused by ‘fat-burgs,’ the collective term for fats, oils and grease that congeal into a stubborn, immovable mass once cooled on a reduction on the number of blockages caused by wet wipes.

Rachel Lee, Curriculum for Life, Safeguarding and PHSE Governor, Crawshaw Academy, said:  “We’re really grateful for Yorkshire Water for providing this opportunity for pupils at the academy as it is important to supply students with sustainable choices.  It ensures that our Personal, Health and Social Education (PHSE) curriculum is relevant and reflective of current local and global issues.  We highly recommend that other schools take up this opportunity.”

Yorkshire Water plans to adopt the Hey Girls approach across its sites and offices, so that the majority of its washrooms will have eco-friendly and sustainable period products available to colleagues across the business. 

Some facts and stats that may surprise you:

• 49% of young people in the UK have missed an entire day at school because of their period
• 22% have had to improvise with the products that they use
• 1 in 10 people in the UK are affected by period poverty
• Studies have shown that lots of young people miss out on physical education (PE) due to period anxiety
• The Lionesses challenged the stigma about periods and period anxiety, resulting in the introduction of dark shorts for all of their England matches during the UEAFA 2022 Euros
• Over 220m non-sustainable products are flushed away every year which contain plastic and take a very long time to break down
• Period products are designed to absorb liquid and expand when they are flushed and can cause problems to the sewage network
• Yorkshire Water looks after 20,000 miles of pipework across the region and is spending over £252million to improve the quality of the pipe network over the next 5 years
• The only things that should be flushed down the loo are paper, pee and poo, anything else (including dental floss, false eyelashes and period products) should be disposed of elsewhere