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AIBU?

Lobby Procter and Gamble to stop using plastic applicators

135 replies

RCallway · 16/05/2013 09:51

Please join me in lobbying Procter and Gamble to stop using unnecessary plastic applicators. Write to:

Bob McDonald - CEO: [email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]

I sent them the following message which you can amend / use if you like:

Dear Bob

I bought Tampax Compak for the first time in a very long time at a shop because I had no alternative options. I was extremely shocked and disappointed to find a plastic, unrecycled, non-degradable applicator. Surely P&C have the skills and global conscience to use a degradable and recycled cardboard applicator - if it has to use one at all?! Using petroleum-based plastic is an extremely backward step - both an anti-green and anti-social choice. I understand some women feel the need to use applicators but please, please, please look at alternative options or save money and the environment and drop the applicator altogether.

Best wishes

OP posts:
Sparklingbrook · 16/05/2013 09:53

Those plastic applicators pinch as well. Sad

Tee2072 · 16/05/2013 09:56

Nope. Don't care.

Sparklingbrook · 16/05/2013 09:57

But they do pinch Tee. So I voted with my feet and don't use them.

ballinacup · 16/05/2013 09:59

But the plastic applicators are much more comfortable to insert. I've found the cardboard ones snag, especially on lighter flow days. Presumably other women have found the same, hence the plastic applicators.

Tee2072 · 16/05/2013 10:00

Fair enough, Sparkling. I hardly think it's worth a campaign or whatever this is!

So, OP, YABU.

HTH!

uncongenial · 16/05/2013 10:01

They do pinch. Ouch! I didn't know they were still around as I haven't seen any for years.

Sparklingbrook · 16/05/2013 10:02

I should maybe write to the CEO about the pinching Tee. Grin

Thanks uncongenial it's not just me then. They grab bits they shouldn't. Sad

Gobbolinothewitchscat · 16/05/2013 10:04

Nope - sorry. The cardboard ones are painful. If they go back to them, then I would stop using tampax.

I presume the reason they are not recyclable are that essentially, once used, they are equivalent to clinical waste and therefore not suitable to go in with recycling. Just the same as sharps etc. not everything can be recycled and it would be better to focus a campaign on encouraging recycling generally if things that can be.

CajaDeLaMemoria · 16/05/2013 10:04

Oh god, I hate the cardboard ones.

I wouldn't use them at all if they were all card. It requires precision that my hands don't always have.

Never had a pinching problem, though...

I do think that Procter did a survey on this not so long ago? I remember being asked at university about it.

Sparklingbrook · 16/05/2013 10:05

I think I had the pinching with the Pearl ones.

propertyNIGHTmareBEFOREXMAS · 16/05/2013 10:06

Plastic applicators are so much more comfortable than cardboard.
Plastic slides up my fanny very nicely thank you and I prefer a comfortable vadge box over a small gain to the environment. Yabu.

Pobblewhohasnotoes · 16/05/2013 10:06

I don't find they pinch. Much prefer the plastic ones, the cardboard ones get stuck.

Sparklingbrook · 16/05/2013 10:08

Ooh maybe I am doing it wrong. Confused I like the cardboard ones.

ShlongAndFanjoForTheMammeries · 16/05/2013 10:08

I use re-washable sanitary towels, personally I think any disposable sanitary product is unethical and unnecessary.

Gobbolinothewitchscat · 16/05/2013 10:11

I really, really want Bob McDonald to reply to any emails stating that there will be no change as customer feedback has found that I prefer a comfortable vadge box over a small gain to the environment. Yabu.

Grin - thank you property

Concreteblonde · 16/05/2013 10:13

No thanks. Plastic applicator are the only ones I find comfortable to use.

mrswoz · 16/05/2013 10:13

The plastic ones are much less hurty.

So, um, YABU Hmm

RiotsNotDiets · 16/05/2013 10:16

Another one preferring a comfortable vadge box here

Sorry OP!

Tee2072 · 16/05/2013 10:18

I recently bought the cardboard ones by mistake and they don't...um...plunge! They get stuck so then you've got to get both hands under there and it's awkward and...no.

Give me plastic any day.

Or no applicator at all. I like those as well. So long as my fingernails are trimmed...

Gobbolinothewitchscat · 16/05/2013 10:22

I'm sure - there's been a thread in this relatively recently and I'm sure the general consensus was the same.

Off to look

Mondrian · 16/05/2013 10:22

While you are at it perhaps good to know the other issues surrounding tampons - toxins and its effect on your body and the environment.
www.spotsite.org/village.html

ChunkyPickle · 16/05/2013 10:23

Way, way prefer the plastic ones, plus they're shorter and easier to carry around.

I've pinched myself with the cardboard ones, which are also inclined to wedge while trying to insert, and which I ruin a fair number of carrying around because they're such an inconvenient size (and I no longer have the weird/ugly case that they handed out in primary school).

I do plenty of other things to save waste, I would like to keep the much more comfortable and convenient (for me) plastic applicators.

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Sparklingbrook · 16/05/2013 10:23

Dear Bob,

I don't like plastic applicators as they pinch and feel like they are slicing my fanjo up.

Please reply by return,

Much love,

Sparkling xx

EasilyBored · 16/05/2013 10:23

Plastic applicators don't hurt or get stuck like the card ones. So YABU. You could always just not buy the ones you don't agree with. I don't agree with scented ones (seriously, WTAF?) so don't purchase them.

QueenStromba · 16/05/2013 10:30

Your time would be better spent trying to persuade more women to use re-useable sanitary protection such as mooncups, washable pads and sponges. I've had my mooncup for about three years now which means I've saved the use of hundreds of tampons with associated packaging in that time.

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