Can someone tell me WHY they are so grossed out by sanitary products in a BIN?

[KateTush]

I know this thread may invite the haves and the have nots of bathroom bins to argue endlessly about it, but what I really want to know is…

…(to the people who DON’T think it’s acceptable to put a tampon/sanitary towel into a bathroom bin): WHY ON EARTH NOT?!?

It’s a bloody bin (pun not intended). In a bathroom. For bathroom rubbish. Which for many women is primarily used sanitary products. I’ve often seen threads where people say it’s disgusting to have to “handle” or “root around for” a friend’s tampon…er…you don’t do either?! You tie a knot in the bin bag, without looking at the contents cos you’re not deeply weird, and chuck it in the outside bin.

Using kitchen bin is one thing, but expecting a guest to put bathroom waste in their handbag next to their phone/snacks/pen/chewing gum/whatever is just so unreasonable it boggles my mind. Even more so if you have a bathroom bin but think that this particular use of it is unreasonable.

I’m wondering who I’ve offended in my life by using their bathroom bin in this way - it would never occur to me that there was an unsaid rule about sanitary products not going in there when it seems to be the main purpose of the bin being there in the first place.

I’m sorry, but I’ve also got to ask all the handbag smugglers/hosts who expect guests to handbag smuggle - are you generally a bit uptight about hygiene and bodily functions or perhaps periods in general? And again, how is it more gross to BIN something that PUT IT IN YOUR HANDBAG.

A bin is a bin. It’s for rubbish. That includes used sanitary products (obviously unless a recycling bin). A handbag is for putting everyday and useful items of an inoffensive nature in.

These threads leave me with a picture of a dinner party. A number of guests, mixed sex, around the table. One of the women gets up and goes to the loo. Returns carrying a little package. Walks through the room and into the kitchen, where the host is preparing part of the meal. Either puts the package into the kitchen bin or wanders out of the back door and stumbles around in the dark trying to find the general bin. Then washes her hands? In the sink? Goes back up to bathroom? Just weird.

I only have people I like or people who are doing a job for me in my house. I would like them to feel comfortable and therefore provide them with what they might need while they are with me, including, in the loo, a toilet brush, a lidded bin, and, on a shelf or in a drawer which I hope they'd open, some spare sanpro and disposal bags. But if they don't find them, sanpro wrapped in paper and in the bin is fine.

But I do empty the bin regularly. As the OP said, not emptying the bin is the skanky thing, not using it as ... a bin.

I used to live with Asians who put used toilet paper in the bin rather than flushing it. I found that a lot more disgusting than using a bathroom bin for used sanitary items. IMO, that is exactly what a bin in the bathroom is for.

Bathroom bin is exactly for putting this stuff in. Where else would you put it?! My DP even once said to me his mother made a point of explaining to him that even as a single man he needed a bathroom bin so his female friends and girlfriends had somewhere to put used sanitary items if they were using his bathroom.

I think the “walk out and put it straight in the outside bin” people also wash their skirting boards twice a day, hand wash their knickers separately and burn their pyjamas after one wear.

But it is a hazard. As I said before in any other environment someone come in surgical gloves to deal with bodily fluid waste. Hospital, gloves. Office cleaner, gloves. Public toilet, gloves. You may feel happy to inflict this waste on others in their own homes, but you can't deny bodily fluids are a hazard. It's not cool, it's ignorant to pretend otherwise.

So you want the "hazard" to be walked through the house to a more suitable receptacle

I must tell hospitals that they're doing it all wrong and they could just expect medical practitioners to carry the contaminated waste that they produce to some central point, rather than having something convenient (like a bin ) in the room that they are operating in.

You know, like a bin in a bathroom

I'm guessing some of the people against using bins in bathrooms are the same people who think it's gross to do anything other than brush your teeth in an en suite bathroom.....but then again maybe even that's not allowed as you'd have to spit which produces a body fluid...??!

In hospitals it is due to protocol and cross contamination ffs. I find it highly unlikely carrying a closed bag with wrapped sanitary products is going to kill anyone off. Hospitals, where you are dealing with random strangers bodily fluids then going to other patients is somewhat different ffs

I'm so glad that in our newly installed bathroom I've made sure to have a small pedal bin right beside the loo I can empty it by lifting up the inside section (which had a handle) and take it to the outside bin. I never need to touch the contents

I never realised it was so contentious

As I'm now post-menopausal, I don't have to worry about bloody waste (although latterly I used a moon cup ) but guests may need to - not that it is any of my business

Which reminds me: I should probably get a lidded bin for the upstairs (old Ann's gritty) bathroom, now that ds has a girlfriend, for when they're visiting together (although that bathroom doesn't get used as much as the "new" bathroom). At the moment there is just an old waste paper basket which mostly has empty loo rolls

Sorry @MissyCooperismyShero but you do realise with any hospital hazardous waste it is imperative to put it in a bin immediately? As opposed to walking through the hospital out to the big bins holding the blood/pee/poo soaked item in your hand. Or asking the patient to pop it in their bag and take it home with them.

And again, in what way are you at risk? You knot the bin bag and chuck it, then wash your hands. Like you would have with any bin regardless of containing a pad or tampon. You don’t have to touch it, inspect it, etc. I just don’t understand. Do you wear disposable gloves to wipe your own 💩 🍑? Or to change a nappy? Or remove a plaster?

You may feel happy to inflict this waste on others in their own homes, but you can't deny bodily fluids are a hazard.

Then don't root around in the bottom of a binbag like a weird fetishist.

Honestly unless you rarely empty your bins (eww) how would you even know what's at the bottom of a bin bag?

Honestly, this thread is an eye opener.

I had no idea there were this many anally retentive weirdos out there.

A friend who would freak out about me using their bathroom bin to dispose of a tampon or sanitary towel is not a friend I need in my life.

The weirdest part of it is those who are most vocal about it, saying how disgusting and revolting it would be.... have all actively said they rarely empty their bathroom bins! Which to me is mind boggling. Why would you not empty the bin the same as you empty the rest of the bins in your house.

I work in waste management in a hospital. Cleaners do not wear gloves here.
They do not touch the waste directly. Knot the bag and take it to a waste room.
Do not touch bin lid as they are pedal operated.
Anyone directly in contact with bodily fluids would wear gloves. But you are not directly in contact with bodily fluids emptying a bin.
Hand washing is more effective for cleanliness than glove wearing.