In honour of International Women’s Day on Monday, we’re having a week of women’s & sexual health themed posts (and giveaways!!). Check out our older related posts too – such as unused disposable sanitary products or end-of-life menstrual cups.

I thought long and hard about whether to feature this because it’s the type of green action that makes Daily Mail readers exclaim “bloody hippies!!” and pledge to not reduce, reuse or recycle just to annoy us filthy, poor Good-Life-wannabes. But in the end, Cipollina’s comment yesterday convinced me – it’s not for everyone but blood is a cracking fertiliser.

The fluid emptied out from your Mooncup or pink water from rinsing out from your washable sanitary towels is a great source of natural nitrogen – it replenishes overworked soil and feeds the plants. People buy blood meal — the dried & powdered blood from livestock — as a non-synthetic fertiliser but why not cut out the middle man/middle cow? It’s as organic as you are.

There are some potential problems with just pouring it straight on the garden – some blood-borne pathogens can be transferred around and apparently it can attract ants – but one way to minimise the risk of that sort of thing is to put it through a hot compost heap. If you know you have a blood-borne pathogen, you might want to look into the situation with your condition further – although apparently even hepatitis, one of the longest surviving blood-borne pathogens outside the body, only manages about 30 hours before breaking down (shorter if heated/exposed to sunlight).

I found two very interesting discussions on the topic – this one and this one – explaining about different people’s experiences and methods but I wonder if anyone has used it for anything a bit more out of the ordinary…

Thoughts? Ideas? Suggestions?

Today, the 8th of March, is International Women’s Day.

I’m not really one for Days or similar events because I dislike the way it compartmentalises action or thought and I have particular dislike for International Women’s Day because I don’t feel like I need a special day to celebrate being a woman and our achievements – I’ve got 365 of them a year.

But International Women’s Day isn’t for me. It’s not for me with my education, my career, my IUS, and the roof over my head which I jointly own with my truly-a-partner partner. For example, this year’s IWD is to focus attention to the hardships women face when displaced during armed conflict – and how they often overcome such hardships to rebuild homes and their communities.

Why am I talking about this on a reusing and recycling website? Because it’s all part of the same picture. Yesterday in the Observer, there was a report about how many recently war-torn countries in Africa are being ripped apart again – this time by food companies wanting to construct giant greenhouses to feed us mange tout (pun intended). The people in the worst situations are the ones being exploited to feed us summer veg all year around, to clothe us in £4 fall-apart jeans and provide us with endless consumer items which will end up in landfill within weeks. By living more sustainably over here, we help people throughout the world.

Inspired by IWD today, this week is going to be a little different on Recycle This – we’ll still be thinking about reducing, reusing and recycling but focused around women’s health & sexual health – and we’ve got some great giveaways! Stay tuned!