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St. Matthew College

Miguel Cristi Street, Ampid II, San Mateo, Rizal
High School Department
Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics

Improper Menstrual Waste Disposal of Women of St. Matthew College

Presented to:

Sir. Ephraim Larazo

EAPP Teacher

Submitted by:

Jayag, Raezy

12 – STEM A

October 2019
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St. Matthew College

Miguel Cristi Street, Ampid II, San Mateo, Rizal
High School Department
Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics

I. Introduction
Menstruation cycle is a part of every women's life. According to World Health
Organization, a person aged 10–19 years is considered as an adolescent. The transition
period the childhood and adulthood is called adolescence which is marked with the growth
and development of the child. During this period, physical, psychological, and biological
development of the child occurs. It is recognized as a special period in a girl’s life cycle
which requires special attention. Menarche between is an important biological milestone
in a woman’s life as it marks the onset of the reproductive phase of her life. The average
age at menarche is mostly consistent across the populations, that is, between 12 and 13
years of age. Unfortunately, due to lack of knowledge on menstruation preparedness and
management or due to shyness and embarrassment the situation becomes worse for
girls. Most girls get their first period when they're between 10 and 15 years old. The
average age is 12, but every girl's body has its own schedule. Although there's no one
right age for a girl to get her period, there are some clues that it will start soon. Typically,
a girl gets her period about 2 years after her breasts start to develop. Another sign is
vaginal discharge fluid (sort of like mucus) that a girl might see or feel on her underwear.
This discharge usually begins about 6 months to a year before a girl gets her first period.
Due to this, many women are not prepared and don't know what to do on the first day that
they have encountered this. women have very less or no knowledge about reproductive
tract infections caused due to ignorance of personal hygiene during menstruation time. In
rural areas, women do not have access to sanitary products or they know very little about
the types and method of using them or are unable to afford such products due to high
cost. So, they mostly rely on reusable cloth pads which they wash and use again. Needs
and requirements of the adolescent girls and women are ignored despite the fact that
there are major developments in the area of water and sanitation. Women manage
menstruation differently when they are at home or outside; at homes, they dispose of
menstrual products in domestic wastes hand in public toilets and they flush them in the
toilets without knowing the consequences of choking. So, there should be a need to
educate and make them aware about the environmental pollution and health hazards
associated with them. In connection with this issue, the observer noticed that women
student of St. Matthew College are not disposing their menstruation pads properly. She
said that because every time she goes to comfort room she sees sanitary pad that are
not covered with plastic or anything to hide the stain in it. There are also some
circumstances where in napkins are just thrown in the tiles or even in the water container.
Another thing that caught her attention is that some girls don't pay time to flush the toilet
with their menstruation discharges. The observer wants to have a further study about this
topic is because she wants to give awareness to every girls inside St. Matthew College.
She also wants everyone to be comfortable to go to rest room without thinking that they
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St. Matthew College

Miguel Cristi Street, Ampid II, San Mateo, Rizal
High School Department
Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics

might see an improper disposed sanitary pad or to smell bad odor due to it. The observer
also wants to prevent anyone from acquiring diseases from this waste.

II. description of activity

This observation is about the improper sanitary pad disposal of women of St.
Matthew college. It includes the menstruation pad that are just thrown on the floor and
the menstruation discharges that are not flushed properly on the toilet. The observer
come up with this topic because appropriate disposal of used menstrual material is still
lacking in many countries of the world. Most of the countries have developed techniques
to manage their fecal and urinary wastes but, because of lack of menstrual management
practices in the world, most of the women dispose of their sanitary pads or other
menstrual articles into domestic solid wastes or garbage bins that ultimately become a
part of solid wastes. In schools, due to lack of sanitary facilities, girls throw their pads in
toilets. In some cases, girls threw away their used menstrual clothes without washing
them. Among the population, the observer chose to observe female student of St.
Matthew college who are using toilet inside Elisea bulding because under this building is
where most of the menstruation pads can be found. All the chosen sample to be observe
must be 12 years old above who are already experiencing menstrual period. This
observation starts on october 14 where in the observer just went to comfort room and see
if there are sanitary pads that are just thrown anywhere. In october 15, she decided to
observe all of the comfort room and compare them after a week. At first, it has been
difficult for her to observe because the comfort rooms are already cleaned by the
maintenance. In october 17, she decided to observe the cubicles every afternoon instead
of early in the morning, she also adjust her observation time from october 17 to october
21. The observer successfully see the result of her observation that there is really a waste
napkin that are not disposed well. Of all the comfort room she observed, she noticed that
the comfort room in first floor under Elisea Building has the highest contribution of this
waste. The reason why observer deals with this problem is because she want to raised
an awareness for what female should do during menstrual period.
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St. Matthew College

Miguel Cristi Street, Ampid II, San Mateo, Rizal
High School Department
Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics

III. Interpretation and analysis

From what the observer found in her observation, she noticed that among all the
toilets in Elisea building, the toilet on the first floor has the most number of menstrual pads
that are improperly disposed. While the toilet under the third floor of the building has the
least number of sanitary pads disposed because there are only two sections that are
using it. The reason behind this problem is the lack of knowledge of women on how to
dispose their ways correctly. They also thought that it is just fine because it can not cause
any harm for everyone. Also, there are still women who are careless about their
surroundings. Lack of menstrual bins is an another problem that women are facing
because sometimes they get shy on putting their period pads in an ordinary bin. Menstrual
bin must be separate from an ordinary trash bin because if you are going to combine
them, it will cause an unpleasant smell. Based on this observation, there is no pattern on
how can you identify the causes of improper menstrual pad disposal because anyone can
do this and it can happen anywhere, aside from that, there are other kinds of menstrual
wastes. The strong point of this observation is the sample itself, because it is very specific
when it comes to sample and the observer did not generalized the whole population.
Another strong point is that the result of this observation is very evident, by just entering
women’s comfort room, you can see how polluted it is. If there is a weak point for this
observation, it would be the truth that the observer was not able to identify the age of
women that contributed much to improper menstrual pad disposal. She was able to
identify that one, it would be a great help because age may have a connection with this
issue. This observation is same as the result of some study that lack of knowledge about
proper menstrual waste disposal of women is the top reason for this problem.
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St. Matthew College

Miguel Cristi Street, Ampid II, San Mateo, Rizal
High School Department
Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics

IV. Conclusions and Recommendations

Women on this modern world have so much insecurities for themselves. They
always want to look presentable and clean when it comes to public places. They never
forget to used skin care and make ups to look gorgeous outside but sometimes they are
forgetting how important small things are. Including in this small things is the proper
disposal of their sanitary pads. It is always good to care not just on your outside beauty,
but also the beauty of your surroundings and its safety.
On exact one week observation of the observer, she found out that women of St.
Matthew college does not have enough knowledge on how they should dispose their
sanitary pads properly. She also noticed that most of the comfort rooms do not have a
separate trash bin for regular wastes and for menstrual wastes that is why you could smell
a stinky odor on it. She can also conclude that women are so confident not to clean their
toilet because they know that there is a maintenance to do the work. She think that this
problem cannot be resolve for as long as there is no equivalent punishment for this.
In the end of this observation, the observer recommends the women to study about
proper menstrual waste disposal so that whenever they need to dispose their waste it will
not be exposed everywhere. Also, be sure to remember the proper menstrual hygiene.
School is also involved with this problem so they must also take an action. The school
must provide a separate trash bin and menstrual bin because it will be a lot hygienic. All
the toilet flushes must function so that whenever a woman uses a toilet and leave
menstrual discharges it will be easier to clean. Men are not exempted with this, they must
influenced women in managing menstrual household, schools, works, and community
through many roles such as husband, fathers, brothers, teachers, students, colleagues,
and leaders.
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St. Matthew College

Miguel Cristi Street, Ampid II, San Mateo, Rizal
High School Department
Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics

V. Appendices

Ages where menstruation cycle

occur
From here you can see that as
early as age of 15, menstruation
occurs.

It shows that most

women used the same
waste bins in disposing their
pads instead of using
menstrual bins
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St. Matthew College

Miguel Cristi Street, Ampid II, San Mateo, Rizal
High School Department
Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics

VI. References
Elledge, MF, (2018, November 15). Menstrual Hygiene Management and Waste
Disposal in low and Middle Income Countries. Retrieved from http://
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6266558/

Druet, A, (2017, February 8). When does menstruation begin?. Retrieved from
https://helloclue.com/articles/life-stages/when-does-menstruation-begin

Sarpolis, K, (2011, November 18). First Menstruation: Average Age and Physical Signs.
Retrieved from https://www.obgyn.net/young-women/first-menstruation-average-age-
and-physical-signs
Lekhi, M, (2016, August 7). Why we need a proper menstrual waste disposal system.
Retrieved from https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/blogs/Chargesheet/why-we-need-a-
proper-menstrual-waste-disposal-system/