How do I calculate the carbon footprint of a sanitary napkin?

Weigh one pad's fluff pulp, superabsorbent polymer, nonwoven top sheet, PE back sheet, adhesive and wrapper, apply supplier or database factors, and add machine electricity per pad. Divide by pads made. Materials are usually most of the total; compostable materials change the end-of-life picture.

Materials per pad

• Fluff pulp or cotton or banana fibre core.
• Superabsorbent polymer: high per kg, small in quantity.
• Nonwoven top sheet, PE back sheet, release paper and hot-melt adhesive.
• Individual wrappers and the pack.

Manufacturing

• Pad machine and core forming electricity.
• UV sterilisation where used.
• Semi-automatic units: count each machine's motor hours.

End of life

Used pads are mostly landfilled or incinerated. If you include end of life, state the route; do not claim compostability without a test standard behind it.

Worked example: pad unit per pad (one month)

• Electricity: 8,000 kWh x 0.710 = 5,680 kg CO2
• Pads made: 2,000,000
• Plant total: 5,680 / 2,000,000 = 0.0028 kg CO2 per pad
• Add pulp, SAP, sheets, adhesive and wrappers for the full figure

Inputs are illustrative; use your own bills and production records.

What Senseible does here

Senseible reads the plant's electricity bills (CEA grid factor 0.710 kg CO2 per kWh, CO2 Baseline Database version 21.0) and fuel invoices (IPCC 2006 defaults) into a fingerprinted Scope 1 and 2 record, the plant-level input to a per-unit figure. Bought-in materials go to the supplier evidence trail; product reports are self-declared drafts.

• Product carbon footprint calculator
• Cradle to gate or cradle to grave
• Emission factors for PP, HDPE and PVC resin

Sources: GHG Protocol Product Standard, ISO 14067:2018, Carbon footprint of products (iso.org), IPCC 2006 Guidelines, Volume 2 Energy (fuel defaults), CEA CO2 Baseline Database, version 21.0

Last reviewed 2026-10-20.