FIELD OF THE INVENTION:

The present invention relates to the field of menstrual health and hygiene. More particularly, low cost biodegradable sanitary pads made by bagasse or recycled cigarette butts (when approved by govt or health agencies) or both along with superabsorbent core made with natural absorbents like fuller's earth and

Tragacanth gum or Arabic gum or acacia gum or any other gums or psyllium husk in the core.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION:

PROBLEM 1: Over 4.5 trillion cigarettes are littered worldwide each year. They are the most littered item in the world.

PROBLEM 2: Tons of Bagasse comes out as waste after the extraction of juice from sugarcanes.

PROBLEM 3:

1. Only 12% of India's 355 million menstruating women use sanitary napkins (SNs). Over 88% of women resort to shocking alternatives like unsanitised cloth, ashes and husk sand. Incidents of Reproductive Tract Infection (RTI) is 70% more common among these women. Basic hygiene is vital to health, and the

consequences of poor hygiene are vast and severe. Lack of hygiene can cause diseases like gastroenteritis, pneumonia, and hepatitis A as well as parasites like scabies infection, hookworm and giardiasis.

2. In Kenya, girls can miss an average of 5 days of school each month due to their period. Some girls drop out of school entirely because they don’t have access to sanitary products. Instead they will use cotton wool, pages from an exercise book or leaves from trees. If a girl’s education is under threat, it will affect her life in numerous ways. Research shows girls who drop out of school are more likely to become pregnant at an early age, less likely to have good health and more likely to contract diseases like H IV and AIDS.

3. In Australia, girls in remote Indigenous communities are even stealing sanitary pads and skipping school for several days during their periods. Schools in some areas were reported to have no sanitary bins in bathrooms. Reports also claim the hygiene standards were not acceptable in modern day Australia. 4. According to WaterAid, in many Nepalese villages the belief is that girls should sleep outside or else the other villagers will get sick and their goats will die. Some believe it is a sin to be close to their family members while they are on their period. Girls are not allowed to eat with their families, use the same water sources, or even touch the men in their families, lest they be responsible for ‘polluting’ them.

OBJECTIVES OF THE INVENTION:

1. This invention aims to improve menstrual health and hygiene of million of women across India and globe by developing low cost sanitary pads

2. This invention aims to utilize sugarcane waste to develop low cost sanitary pads.

3. This invention aims to recycle cigarette butts and utilize them to develop low cost sanitary pads, thereby saving the environment from the toxins and pollutants.

4. This invention aims to use natural absorbents like fuller's earth and

psyllium husk or tragacanth gum or Arabic gum or acacia gum or any other gums to develop highly quality low cost sanitary pads.

5. This invention aims to utilize waste and recycled material to develop

natural and biodegradable, low cost sanitary pads.

6. This invention aims to increase affordability of sanitary napkins by developing low cost sanitary pads using natural and biodegradable ingredients like bagasse, fuller's earth, tragacanth gum etc.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION:

1. Bagasse to be grinded and filtered to remove lignin from cellulose. Cellulose thus be cleaned and dried to form the first layer of sanitary pad.

2. Bagasse to undergo acid pretreatment and to be treated with sodium hydroxide to remove lignin and hemicellulose. Maximum cellulose is processed through this treatment, which will then be used to form the first layer of sanitary pad.

3. Recycling cigarette butts, which is basically cellulose acetate and treating them with boiling water, pressure cooking, bleaching agents and chemicals to make them toxic free, cellulose left will be used to make second layer of sanitary pads(when approved by the govt or health agencies).

4. In other case, cellulose acetate in cigarette butts to be treated with chlorine, hydrogen peroxide or commercial chemicals like genesol 61 and genesol 37, to make it cleaner, safer and more suitable for its use in sanitary pads.

5. Superabsorbent core, use of pouch/ sac developed from recycled cigarette butts (when approved by the govt, or health agencies) or cotton knitwear / cotton filled with natural absorbent like fuller's earth and psyllium husk or tragacanth gum or arabic gum or acacia gum or any other gum.

6. Low cost sanitary pads to be made by using single or two layers of cellulose derived from bagasse along with superabsorbent core (point 5) in between or on top of single layer.

7. Low cost sanitary pads to be made by using only cellulose acetate from recycled cigarette butts (when approved by the govt, or health agencies) along with superabsorbent core (point 5).

8-Low cost sanitary pads to be made by using a layer of cellulose from bagasse over a layer of cellulose acetate from recycled cigarette butts(when approved by the govt, or health agencies), basically both bagasse and cigarette butts along with a superabsorbent core (point 5).

9. Low cost sanitary pads to be made by using fuller's earth and Tragacanth gum powder or any other gums or psyllium husk covered in cotton knitwear.

10. Turmeric could also be used in small quantity in the superabsorbent core for its antifungal and antibacterial qualities.

11. Final product to be covered in cotton knitwear and heat sealed or sewed.

12. Same process and ingredients could also be used to make kids and adult diapers.