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.

Are we talking about

What We Would DO At A Friend's House?

Or

What Would We Expect A Friend To Do At Our's?

At another person's home i would wrap the tampon or towel and take it home with me. I don't know how often they empty their bathroom bin and i would hate for it to start to get whiffy.

A friend at my house? - I'd like them to wrap it if poss. (in bag or lots of loo roll) before putting it in the bin. But i empty our bin quite often and both me and a couple of DDs use it for san wear so it's fine.

So it's not a simple answer 🤔

This is weird. Do you buy nappy sacks for sanpro? Or do you just have an open bin bag in the dustbin?

I'm genuinely interested in this too from a professional perspective (have spent longer than you care to imagine investigating the causes of sewer blockages). I read a research paper where many respondents thought it was dirty or embarrassing to put sanitary items in a bathroom bin. ok, if you live with your dad i can see there might be a bit of stigma attached to it but dirty......surely that's the whole point of a bin is to put dirty things in it?!? And I really don't understand putting them in the kitchen bin, that's more disgusting than using a bathroom bin!

Personally it's a no for me- no bathroom hon, and I'd never use someone else's- but wouldn't judge someone who did. I find the concept of dried/ drying menstrual products sitting around for a day or two in the bathroom a yick concept- and I also think there is a smell involved. However those that do, crack on and doesn't bother me at all.

To be fair, I double cleanse my face with water so don’t use cotton wool and if I blow my nose I use loo roll and put it in the toilet. So no need for a bathroom bin for rubbish like this really here!

Seriously though, what do people expect guests to do with their sanpro then, if not put them in the bathroom bin? Eat them to destroy the evidence? Or perhaps pop them behind their ear until a 'proper' bin can be located?

All these people saying that it would make the bin smell, so do none of your other bins ever smell? My food caddy stinks regularly. I've also just cleaned my fridge salad drawer out and there were some gross rotting things in there. Every time my kids use the bathroom it smells. You aren't going to catch anything from having to empty a smelly bathroom bin. They can be cleaned easily just like other bins.

I mean, the thing is, yes it's technically rubbish, but there is a difference between waste and clinical waste. It's bodily fluids soaked into something. It could be quite a lot of fluid and/or clots, to be blunt.

The first 2 days of my periods are really heavy, so we're not talking a little pany liner with a spot or two on it ....

Personally i would not leave that in someone else's bathroom bin expecially if all else that's in there is a couple of odd little cotton wall balls from a week ago.

I don’t use cotton wool either and I actually use reusable sanpro most of the time but there are enough other things that go into my bathroom bin to justify having one eg:
Toothpaste tubes
Floss
Plasters and their wrapping
Medicine blister packs
Cotton buds
Old toothbrushes/electric toothbrush heads

Some very very vocal, passionate posters here!!!

The bathroom bins are for bathroom rubbish in my house, including sanitary products. I empty it once a week. I use a bin bag, so tend to stack any recyclables near the bin and then take down to the recycling bin with me.

Wouldn't bother me in the slightest if a guest used the bathroom, and I came across used sanitary products. Would rather they used the bins than their own handbags or whatever.

Never had any smells! Once a week seems to do fine.

What?!

So wait you rifle through your bathroom bin to sort the recycling?!

And you think those of us who use our bathroom bins for bathroom based rubbish are weird?!

Also bins get emptied when the bathroom gets cleaned surely? So do you not clean your bathroom? Now we can get all MN high and mighty about how disgusting YOU are!

My bathroom bin I very much don't want to rifle through. (DHs ear cotton buds the main culprit)

Recycling goes straight to the recycling bin in the kitchen.

(When I say straight to I mean once I've seen it. Or until I'm bored of the "how many toilet rolls before someone else puts them in the recycling" game. In case you're wondering currently we're at 6!)

@emmathedilemma - surely that's the whole point of a bin is to put dirty things in it?!? And I really don't understand putting them in the kitchen bin, that's more disgusting than using a bathroom bin!

Isn't that a contradictive bit of thinking though? All bins are for dirty things. OK. But using a kitchen bin is ''more'' disgusting?

lassof That made me laugh, I also have a dog who checks out all my bins but as I am now past menopause I don't have to deal with this particular problem.

Where do you put your used sanitary products then?!

Why? Because someone else’s smelly bloody pads or tampons are gross.
biohazards.
your bodily functions: urine smell, stool pattern and menses is your business alone.
depending on the state of affairs I’d end a friendship over this.
a bloody tampon applicator or tampon half wrapped in toilet paper….unsocial behavior equal to drug paraphernalia or a used condom.

DD is too young for a moon cup and I have tried and can't get on with them so the bathroom bin is mainly used for san pro, especially now that recycling is happening in our area (separate wheelie bins only introduced in our area of the county in 2021!!! Before that we were still on weekly grey general waste bins collections). Other than the odd cotton bud, unrecyclable plastic wrappers, toothpaste tube seals and dental floss I don't think we use the bin for anything else so used sanpro in paper disposable bags seems perfectly acceptable. And for a synced up week a month I just empty the bin more often.

This type of garbage goes into a larger general bin with all sorts so it doesn’t “stand out” or need to be touched.

God I'm glad I'm not your friend.

Obviously wrapping things like sanitary products makes sense, but I would argue that if there is a bag within the bin then there is no wrapping necessary. And if there isn't a bag within the bin then there is still no wrapping necessary, as the owner of the bin clearly tips out rubbish into a bag and cleans the bare plastic if wanted / necessary.

If you have a problem with sanitary products in your bathroom bin then the options are to provide a special bin solely for sanitary products, or to ensure that you never have a woman on her period in your house.

My bin is used for san pro - so it's ok to put it in the bin here. But i wouldn't leave my san pro in someone else's bin ...

So what camp am i in??
The arse splinter camp? 😂

I don't know really but i know I'm not getting a bathroom bin just in case of a passing menstruating guest who uses non-washables.

Even my daughter's friends just use period knickers/those cute bags to store them in. I genuinely thought that was pretty much the teen thing for periods and disposables were 1990s. They even sell them in primark. Again, obviously my little corner of the world is not everyone's I guess. Some people are still at it with the tampons, cotton wool, plastic earbuds - are they still a thing?

Can't they just wrap them up in some loo roll and pop them in the outside bin? Don't disposable towels come in those little roll up plastic wrappers any more? Again, into outside bin. I use washables sometimes, yes I know, sigh - mumsnetters, those just go in a little washable bag and come home with me.

Another dilemma that using a Mooncup has solved for me entirely.

I would absolutely avoid putting used pads and tampons in a guest’s bin. Dried blood smells awful within a few hours.

I don't understand why people get weird about it either. It's a bin for bathroom waste?

When I worked on cruise ships, naturally I had periods and had to put the applicators in the bin. I remember waking up one day and my cabin mate had emptied the bin over me.

I always put the applicators back in the packet so you couldn't see any blood. Only solution I could find was wrapping them in toilet roll before putting them in the bin but even then I was called a tramp and disgusting. Where else was I supposed to put them?!

Women are truly cruel.

Yeah I hate some random putting used sanitary products in my bathroom bin. Perpetrators will usually be some female friend of Ds. When I was in hospital NHS, I had a single room and own bathroom as I was very contagious. The bathroom bin had not been emptied before I took over the room and was full of tampons. I complained, presumably anyone would? It was sorted out really quickly, with many apologies, because it is not acceptable to come across a bin full of someone elses used products. They smell obviously, in just the way that a kitchen bin would smell if you put the wrapping of a joint of meat in it. I wouldn't put a sharp, or a plaster or a tissue I had blown my nose on in someone else's inside bin. I would bag or double bag it and take it home, or use the outside bin. No one should have to wear surgical gloves to empty a bin in their own home.