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.

Genuinely never knew this was a thing and I have to say I'm shocked at all of you thinking it's "disgusting" to put a well wrapped sanitary product in your bathroom bin! That is what they are for! I also agree with the previous posters who think it is far more rude to expect a guest to have to carry out a used san pro in their handbag, or through your house into the kitchen bin/outside bin for everyone to see! (I would also add/point out that I have always had san pro in my toilets for guests caught short as I only have one bathroom so this might be where they would get them from, to those who say they should put the used one wherever they got the fresh one!) I'm 35 and have always put well wrapped san pro, as necessary, in a bin wherever was necessary - at friends' houses etc and I'm know they all do likewise. I guess we are just of the age where we have less shame about this now as adults than previous generations.. I remember having to ask a bf in the past to get a bathroom bin though as he had never thought about it!

Having said that about less shame, it brings back memories of starting my period at 10 when in primary school and there were no bins in the bathrooms at all so I used to smuggle in my fresh sanitary towel up my jumper sleeve and hold my sleeve against myself so noone would know I had it, change it and then (shamefully) wrap up the used one and hide it behind the toilet. I remember actually at some point my mother had advised the school that I had started and I was told I could use the teachers toilets when needed but ofc I felt far too embarrassed/ashamed to have to ask and do this and draw attention to myself. I feel so sad at the poor little girl I was there - the first/only one in the school (small school) who had started my periods as far as I could tell and taught from the beginning how shameful it all was. I also feel for the janitor who presumably had to clean it away. I would not have been able to take my bag to the bathroom when I needed to go etc as it was just hung up in its place in the classroom... I do wonder/hope that this has been changed now. Why not just have a bin in the cubicle..

Kate tush

I just don’t want to be dealing with your period waste full stop. Or anybody else’s for that matter.

the very thought is gross to me and for that reason I will not get a bin.

fwiw I certainly wouldn’t expect anyone to deal with my waste and I have never left my used products in anyone’s bin.

I always feel a bit ick when they guy comes to my work and has to empty the sanitary bins too

The bathroom bin is for used sanitary products and other items you don't flush. Cardboard tubes and empty bottle go in the recycling bins not the bathroom bin

@ThierryEnnui

Heavy periods. Lack of funds. Not having parents who will buy them (if younger). Caught short.

Not aimed at you but IME people who haven’t had heavy periods really don’t understand what it’s like, quite understandably. I can see this contributing to the confusion from both sides of this.

I really don't get this. You stuff them into empty shampoo bottles?!? And then when you decide it's time to recycle them you have to get them out anyway?!? Where do you have these empty shampoo bottles? How much shampoo do you use?!?

Demented pixie

she can put whatever she wants in her bathroom bin 🤣🤣 you can’t dictate what bathroom bins are used for in her house!!

I don't use disposable sanitary stuff but if I did, it would go in outside bin because we don't have a bin in the toilet. It's too small in there for one but I don't like them anyway. Rubbish just goes straight downstairs into the appropriate bin

My periods are horrendous with a lot of flooding. It's a huge huge advantage of washables with mooncup, if you are able to wear them op. Saves a fortune, far more secure than pads and tampons. You can even combine with period knickers for ultimate in security. I don't know how you are managing if you're relying on disposable stuff tbh.

I always think that everyone on here saying they think it’s fine to leave used san pro in others’ bins must be blessed with a lovely light flow. Same for the moon cup/period pants fans.

i don’t have periods any more but in the years before I stopped was blessed with heaving flooding, clotting etc that required doubling up of protection and frequent changing. I’d have left my hosts with a bit that looked like an overflowing clinical waste bin if i’d
gone with the ‘it’s only blood, what’s the issue’ view. It was bad enough dealing with it myself, never mind inflicting it on someone else.

I read that as meaning she puts toilet roll tubes and plastic bottles in the bathroom bin prior to putting them in the recycling. San Pro goes nowhere near the precious bin.

Oh. So where does the sanpro go?

Nope. It’s precisely my heavy periods that mean I would need to put my used tampon in a bin, and would resist taking it through the house or putting it in a handbag. (Not to mention: why would I take my handbag to the loo? A tampon fits in a pocket or hand.) A pp suggested changing it at home before visiting her house, which rather assumes she doesn’t know anyone who needs to change their protection frequently. Or her guests don’t stay long.

I don’t see how it’s inflicting? Everyone I know who has a bathroom bin puts a bin bag in said bin. Generally pedal bins. So very little inflicting or dealing with required: foot on pedal, pull ends of bin bag together. Everyone being weird about sanitary protection in a bin seems to think they’ll need to spend their time elbow deep in effluvia pulling individual items out one by one; that’s the oddness.

@fallfallfall

*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*

Bloody hell; what a drama queen you are! And an unpleasant friend!

I couldn’t give two figs what someone emits in my bathroom as long as they clean up after themselves and neatly dispose of their rubbish. I also wouldn’t mind it going in my kitchen bin as long as it’s in a doggy poo bag or similar as I empty my (small) bin daily.

All people urinate and defecate. Women also menstruate.

The vast majority of us understand that peeing and pooing is a private activity, not meant to be broadcast and certainly one shouldn't leave remnants in bathroom bins (unless tightly wrapped, if absolutely necessary). But for some reason menstruating is something we're supposed to celebrate, broadcast, and leave behind the waste products for all and sundry to see.

I just don't see the difference. To me, both are the vacating of bodily waste, and should be done discreetly.

People who're freaked or grossed out by the idea of sanpro/bodily waste being put into a bathroom bin (or having a bin at all), lidded it otherwise, really should never go to Greece , where, not only do they usually have open bins (albeit usually with a plastic bag lining them, but you're expected to put all your used toilet paper in them If you put the toilet paper down the loo, you will block it!

If you're in a hotel, they do empty the bin every day though

I have a vivid memory of being very young and at a friends holiday cottage. I must only have been having periods for a year or so and had been taught never to flush sanitary products down the loo. There was no bathroom bin. As a make do I was given a plastic bag as a bin. I was only a child so I didn't really know what to do. It was in the days before mobile phones so I couldn't call my mum and ask either. It was so embarrassing. Yes, I have a bathroom bin. I used scented bin liners and empty it regularly. I wouldn't care if a friend put a used tampon or anything else in there. It's a bin. It's what it's for. I never want anyone to feel embarrassed about their period in my home.

I assumed it stayed in the fanny forever, held in place by the clench.

@stuntbubbles I agree with every word in that post.

actually, I don’t have a bag in my bathroom bin, it’s a little bucket thing that gets lifted out and tipped into a bigger bag with other rubbish. It’s always felt wasteful to buy a bag for the bathroom bin.

What about used condoms - should they be left for others to dispose of too then?

I don't fancy the pants. I've looked into it in quite a lot of detail but decided not to.

The equation with 5 boxes of tampons doesn't really work because 5 boxes of tampons would do me 5 months (not that i actually use them any more) and one pair of period pants would last me a few hours. Decent ones are quite expensive and i'd probably need about 8/10 pairs. The lay out is quite expensive.

Also I wouldn't want them in with my normal wash and i don't want to save a load of bloody pants up somewhere waiting for a wash on their own. You can't tumble dry them and they're not quick to dry apparently.

If DD wants to use them when she starts in a few years i'll certainly facilitate it for her. It's no fun handling your period while at school and that makes it worth pushing through the downsides of them. But they're not for me.

Our bathroom bin is basically only for used tampons, pads, condoms and toothpaste tubes/floss. I think that's what a bathroom bin is for; waste that can't be recycled or flushed. I always use other's bathroom bins for any tampons etc, I'd wrap anything bloody in toilet roll so it couldn't be seen but wrappers go in as is. If they don't have a bathroom bin then I'd just use their kitchen bin discreetly. I wouldn't go roaming around outside, who even really knows where other people's outside bins are? If they don't change their bins often enough to stop smells it wouldn't ever occur to me to think that was my problem to sort out.

Everything else gets recycled and so never gets put in a bin, we have a little basket in the kitchen which I take out to the recycling bags once a day, upstairs recyclables wait on the stairs until someone's going down usually.

If someone ended a friendship over me using their bin for its intended purpose then I'd write them off as a complete weirdo and count it as a win to be honest.

Then you need a bin and a recycling bin. Sorted.

🤣

@lassof

*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?*

Are you joking about helping the environment or something, @lassof ?? Come on, you’ve had a child which you a the worst possible thing for the environment. I- shock horror!- use plastic stuff if it’s convenient/the only choice, but will not be having children. How sanctimonious can you get?

I keep some doggy poo bags in the bathroom and any used wet wipes or sanpro go in a bag, the top gets tied and it gets put in the bathroom bin. The dogs don't mind me nicking their bags, and they're cheap and biodegrade. No offence to anyone, and the waste is disposed of properly.