- CollegeCentral Saint Martins
- CourseBA (Hons) Product and Industrial Design
- Graduation year2021
MullenLowe NOVA Award: Shortlisted
Inspired by Buoyancy Force, Looop is an NGO project that provides a cleaning kit for washing reusable menstruation pads to reduce period poverty for refugees in water-scarcity regions or asylum seekers in financial difficulties.
It expects to have a 5 year lifespan, which covers the minimum time that a refugee stays in a camp waiting for identity approval.
Final work
Who ?
There are about 26 million people who fled their countries due to conflict, violence, or war. Note that women suffer more vulnerabilities such as widespread gender-based violence and almost 60% of female refugees suffer period poverty problems as they rather spend their funding on food or sacrifice pads for baby diapers. Most of them come from strictly religious countries who see inserting tampons as taboo.
The target user group will be aged from 12 to 24 years old and suffer language and cultural barriers and set the location on Kara Tepe refugee camp in Lesvos Island, Greece, which is the camp that intake people from the Moria Campfire accident in September 2020.
Plastic pad can’t work as it relies on NGOs' constant donation and lack of culturally sensitive disposable methods. Reusable pad works but the shared washing machines there are not always available for everyone in the camp, which means people need to dry the laundry in their shelter and everyone can see.
What ?
To reduce cultural embarrassment for drying pads in public space, pads are reshaped with Bamboo French Terry Fabric as the contact layer, Bamboo Fleece as the absorption layer, and Waterproof PUL as the leakproof layer as they are anti-odour, anti-bacterial and eco-friendly, which makes them less likely to cause skin allergies.
There are 3 parts in total: the base part, the wing part, and the pad itself. When the pad is hung up for drying, it won’t be that obvious to be related to menstruation, and it takes half a day to dry indoors.
A rectangular shaped design reduces fabric off cut waste.
Why ?
Aiming to reduce stigma related to period blood. Looop Can make use of the upward force exerted by a fluid that opposes the weight of a particularly or fully immersed object. It can wash a reusable sanitary pad with 500 ml water.
Looop Can provides baking soda, a natural cleaning detergent, to help remove blood stains. Washing water can be discarded into the natural environment since period blood and baking soda are compostable and harmless to the environment.
Instead of creating a completely new kit out of scratch, Looop Can uses recycled steel cans so that the washing container is easily replaceable. Most modern steel cans for food are given a hermetic plastic coating on the interior, which is used to protect the content from damage such as scratches or dents. Recycled PP is used to make the washing parts. With injection modeling, the total cost is around £3 for the whole set including the washing parts and pads.
How ?
So this is how you use Looop.
First, you add the used pad in. Then you add the baking soda stored inside the container and add water until the level where the packaging indicates. Screw the cap, immerse the screw container and spin to mix the baking soda and water. Buoyancy Force is used to reduce water required for washing, and the gyroscope spinning mechanism allows less human effort, so that people who have period cramps can wash easily. Wait at least 30 minutes until the period blood disintegrates, then use the container to scrub the bloodstain. Rinse and scrub for 3 times and one pad can be cleaned with just 500 ml of water.
Research and process
Where ?
The Looop Can will be a stepping stone to promote hygiene awareness campaigns in the refugee camp. Refugees who join the 30 minutes menstrual hygiene management session can get 2 units of Looop Can as it makes sure that they learn how to use it properly. Capturing the purpose of Looop Can is to guarantee women’s spatial mobility with dignity and no barriers to receive an education.
It also reduces gender-based violence as users don’t have to risk going out to travel long distances at night for toilets. They can change, wash, and dry pad in their shelter. And discard wasted water outside their tents.
To make better gender equality in water and sanitation access. I expect Looop can restore human dignity and reduce period stigma in water scarcity regions such as Jordan. Hope that one day, there won’t be any more heartbreaking period poverty news in the world.
