Baby Steps: The Diva Cup

Baby steps through the office, baby steps out the door, it works! It works! All I have to do… just take one little step at a time, and I can do anything! Baby step throughout the office, Baby step throughout the office.

My Baby Steps plan is to make a small change each time I learn about a new method/product. Or, more likely, when something runs out (like shampoo), I’ll replace it with an eco-friendly method.

My first step is actually quite a big one: The Diva Cup.

The Diva Cup is similar to the Keeper – though the Keeper is no longer available in Canada. The Diva Cup is an alternative to tampons and pads. Made of medical grade silicon, the cup avoids any risk of carcinogenic or other toxic effects because it doesn’t have any dioxin (found in bleached tampons). As their website states, The Diva Cup “holds market approval by the U.S. FDA and is the only menstrual cup that holds market approval by Health Canada.”

The reason for it’s appeal, at least for me, is threefold:

1. waste of tampons and pads
2. cost of tampons and pads
3. toxins from tampons and even pads

I had recently heard that a friend of mine uses the Diva Cup and that made me strongly consider it. Within days, I found myself at Grassroots on the Danforth talking with their buyer, Amanda Montgomery who showed me the difference between regular tampons and the alternatives. Among the alternatives was the Diva Cup.

Here’s the video of our conversation, including a shocking look at how tampons can fall apart:

Image Source: TreeHugger.com