Victoria sustainable period product company launches in Costco

Despite innovations in health and wellness spaces over the decades, period care has long been stuck in the 20th century, with little innovation. But a brand from Victoria is looking to shake up the industry—and make period-care accessible to everyone who needs it.

Joni launched in 2020 as a sustainable, organic period-care line aimed at disrupting the market and working to end period poverty. Co-founders Linda Biggs and Jayesh Vekariya brought their unique backgrounds to create a brand they hoped would stand out.

Vekariya grew up in a slum in India, and saw firsthand how the women in his family struggled with period poverty (a lack of access to menstrual products, education, and sanitary facilities).

He managed to obtain an education which pulled him out of the slums and eventually brought him to study his master’s degree at UVic, where he crossed paths with Biggs. Biggs had a background in branding and marketing, while Vekariya had worked in product development and pharmacology. They decided to combine their skills to create period products that were less “a commodity,” and more something that suited all bodies and genders, and respected the environment.

“I really believed we could do better, and I really believed we could offer people the sustainable, plastic-free, plant-based options that are better for your body, without all the weird-sounding and weirdly spelled chemicals or materials that you're just not familiar with,” Biggs said.

Over the last four years, the company’s small but mighty team—joni currently has six staff members, including Biggs and Vekariya—has grown its online presence. This year it received B-Corp certification, a coveted credential that shows a company is meeting the highest standards for environmental sustainability and employee welfare throughout its supply chain. Joni pads hit the shelves at Costco in Langford this week and are available online at costco.ca.

Not your mother’s tampon

Unlike food products, tampons are not required to list every ingredient. This lack of information, coupled with a disparity in research on female bodies, has left components of period products shrouded in mystery. But recent studies of popular tampon brands in the US and Europe have started to shed light on some of the harmful ingredients found in big name brand products. Heavy metals like lead, which is not safe at any level, were found in 100% of tampons tested. Fragrances are also often included, which can disrupt vaginal pH and lead to skin irritation.

Joni is OEKO-TEX STeP-tested and certified, which tracks supply chains and manufacturing to monitor chemical control, environmental sustainability, and worker safety. Through the testing, the products have been shown to be free of harmful chemicals and fragrances, Biggs said.

Another major issue with the current offering of period products is environmental harm. Typical pads on the market are made with plastic—taking hundreds of years to decompose—but joni pads are made from biodegradable materials, including bamboo, cornstarch, wood pulp, and food-grade adhesive. This means the products could potentially be composted—they will decompose within 12 months—but this largely depends on a municipality’s composting guidelines. In Toronto, soiled compostable pads and diapers are accepted in green bins, but in Victoria there are still restrictions.

“That's why we're trying to work with these companies and facilities teams to build case studies and show that a really important piece of product development is to accept these types of products, because they can break down,” Biggs said.

The pads are made primarily with bamboo, a crop that requires little water and grows quickly. Material made from bamboo tends to be particularly soft and breathable.

“It's one of those pads that are really great for people with sensitive skin,” Biggs said. “We've got tons of people who tell us they can't use pads because they get rashes, and this is literally a game changer for them.”

The tampons are made with organic cotton—bamboo was found to be too absorbent to be used for tampons—which is free from pesticide use. Joni tampons have been tested and shown to be free of nitrates, heavy metals, formaldehyde, titanium dioxide, and chlorine.

Period equity in Canada

Despite the fact that 30% of the population menstruates, period products are not readily available for everyone. One in three women under the age of 25 in Canada can’t afford period products, a statistic that galvanized Biggs and Vekariya to make a change in the market.

“We know that [women are] cutting their pads up in half to make them last longer, using sponges, using rags, using cardboard, having to choose between food pads,” Biggs said. “This is a real issue in Canada.”

Joni has donated more than 700K period products to period equity non-profits across the country. Of their yearly sales, 5% of all revenue goes towards supporting non-profits that provide their communities health, food, and hygiene care, including the United Way, Let It Flow, and the Shelbourne Community Kitchen.

Biggs points out that it’s a given that toilet paper is available for free in every bathroom—”we don't carry around rolls of toilet paper, because you know you're going to get it in every bathroom”—yet tampons and pads are locked away in a small vending machine, which often doesn’t work or is empty. The brand is developing a digitized tampon and pad dispenser for public washrooms that dispenses for free and even tracks whether it’s running low or needs maintenance. It’s currently being tested at a couple of BC office buildings.

“It's really going back to try and make it as easy as possible for facilities teams to keep those dispensers restocked, which then saves them money on labour costs as well,” Biggs said.

Designing the right package

Those who menstruate will use approximately 7,400 tampons during their reproductive years, which last on average, 35 years. With little variety on the market, Biggs said her friends have described purchasing tampons as a “necessary evil.”

Biggs, a self-described “brand nut,” said she wanted to ensure anyone buying joni products resonated with the company and its ethos. She wanted to create modern, stylish, and gender-neutral packaging and have a short and snappy name to go with it. Her husband suggested the name “joni”—both Biggs and her mother-in-law adore Joni Mitchell, the Canadian singer known for shattering gender barriers. It just so happens that the name has a double meaning, though it wasn’t Biggs intention: When pronounced with a soft-J, yoni, means womb or vagina in Sanskrit.

She said when deciding to disrupt the predictable period product industry, she knew eye-catching design and playful marketing could pull people in, while the sustainability and community aspect would help people fall in love with the brand.

​​”The industry is so antiquated and hasn't moved forward, because women have always been an afterthought,” Biggs said. “So to drive this industry forward, we really wanted to create something that was design-led, beautiful, non-stigmatized, non-gendered—basically not a commodity. Something that people could really connect with.”