September 2020
Wá Collective
It’s an unfortunate truth that the two most popular menstrual products, tampons and pads, generate a colossal amount of waste each year. In fact, tampons, pads, liners and their packaging combined amas over 200,000 tonnes of waste annually. To further perpetuate this problem, the majority of this waste is made up of plastic; tampons, pads and liners come wrapped in plastic, with plastic strings, occasionally plastic applicators and some even have a thin layer of plastic on top of the absorbent sheet. Luckily, there is a plastic-free sustainable alternative that we can all get behind.
I first heard about Wā Collective when I met the effervescent Meg Rea, Wā’s Wellington regional manager. I was instantly intrigued and went home and did some research into the company - to say I was impressed would be an understatement. Wā sells a range of menstrual health products, but are best known for their ‘Wā Cup’, a reusable, plastic free, medical grade silicone menstrual cup. This nifty little cup lasts up to 10 years and has already helped divert 2.3 Million disposable menstrual products from entering the landfill. In hopes of finding out more about Wā Collective and what they stand for, I reached out to Meg to find out more about their Wā’s origins and what they stand for.
Meg notes that she had not yet joined Wā Collective at their launch, but it started up in uni space after their founder, Olie Body, researched period poverty and was struck by how prevalent it was in New Zealand Universities.
“The findings of this research inspired the birth of Wā, aiming to solve the issues of period poverty, period waste and the period taboo. To this day, these still are our core values and continue to inspire the work we do,” says Meg.
Image courtesy of Wā Collective
“There are so many reasons for swapping to a Wá Cup….
…you will save thousands of dollars”
Wā collective ensures that every step of their cups production is ethical and done with care. With workers being paid properly, 100% product traceability and plastic free compostable packaging, Wā ticks all the ethical boxes. Alongside the environmental advantages, what really struck me was how for every cup they sell, Wā Collective subsidies one for those in need. Their subsidy partners deliver their cups alongside education and ensure they go where they are needed and wanted. Moreover, Wā partnered up with student associations across Aotearoa, to subsidise Wā cups for university students after finding out the shocking realities of period poverty amongst students. And this is a good point, menstrual products are inexcusably expensive and the monthly costs all add up. Meg makes note of the financial benefits purchasing a menstrual cup brings along.
“There are so many reasons for swapping to a Wā Cup, but, personally, my biggest reason was the financial savings. Over the 10 years you will have a cup, you will save thousands of dollars you would otherwise be spending on pads and tampons. Additionally, using a cup will divert over 2,500 disposable menstrual products from entering landfill,” she says.
In recent months Wā Collective have been branching out and gaining well deserved recognition. You may have even seen their colourful Body Shop campaign on billboards or the back of buses.
“Most recently, we have been working on our "It's Time to Ovary-Act" Campaign with The Body Shop New Zealand. This has been so exciting and humbling to work on with the Body Shop team, having just reached 40K fundraised! All of this is going into donating Wā Cups to schools and community organisations across the motu. This will be our biggest impact drop to date, helping papatūānuku and helping to end period poverty, period,” says Meg.
Switching to a menstrual cup is one of the small ways we can make a big difference. And when purchasing from a company like Wā, you are not only helping yourself but another person in need. It really is a no brainer! ∎