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.

Because blood smells. If it's in a bag in the bin then yes ok. I've seen loose used sanitary towels in open bins it's vile. You wouldn't leave poo on toilet paper in an open bin either - although some people do and often from a culture where the sewage/toilet system is very poor and so it's the thing to toss in a bin next to the toilet. In the UK not necessary. I wouldn't flush towels but I would bag and bin. In someone else's home, nope I wouldn't leave for them to clear away.

I think it's the etiquette of how to 'do things' and what is 'acceptable' to different cultures/social groups/class?

As long as they are wrapped in TP or put inside a plastic bag i don't mind them in the bathroom trash bin. Regardless they shouldn't go in the one in the kitchen.

I can't imagine being the least bit bothered about what anyone puts in my bathroom bin

Period pants/reusable liners aren't exactly cheap. Plenty of people probably can't afford to buy them

I do but only once I've tied them up in a little sanitary bag, they smell like rotting dog meat otherwise . It's disgusting if you aren't bagging securely imo

I think it's pretty gross to be honest. I wouldn't even of them in my own bathroom bin. Definitely not in someone else's. Yuk.

I think its'ok for them to go I the bin provided they are adequately wrapped/bagged and the bin is emptied regularly

Pads and tampons are soooo 90's !!

How funny. I'm picturing it said with a posh voice and a flick of hair 😂 Must be nice to be so naive.

Washable san pro and facial wipes here.
Tissues flushed.
Really wouldnt fancy blood sitting in a bin in warm weather.
Everyone I know uses washable, mooncup or period pants.

It's a friends/culture thing isn't it. It's only on mumsnet that I am exposed to the cotton wool/bathroom bin using majority. You never disappoint. Keeps me up to date with where most people are up to.

If you use a mooncup, so do most of your friends, mostly as they are fantastic so you tell your friends about them, they then buy them etc. But also because you just tend to be friends with people with a similar outlook.

I've used reusable sanpro since the 90s, mooncup later but not that much later. And we don't really have those hangups about blood/bodily fluid discussions, what with using washable sanpro probably. So all quite happy to talk about it, so I know what people use. Frankly why would you throw money away every month? My friends aren't idiots.

Ironically I think I first heard about mooncups on mumsnet back in the early 2000s, now I think about it. It was a different demographic back then 😅

I'm sure Primark are selling period pants because they are soooo niche.

@CatDogMonkeyPOW - ''My Mum doesn't have a bin in her house at all, other than a kitchen caddy for scraps. So of course, every bloody time I visit my period starts.''

Read this and remembered MIL doesn't have a bin in her loo either and yes, Every.single.time we visit (couple of hours away so 3/4 times a year) i come on! It's a running joke between me and DH now and it's SO regular that it's getting weird 😳 😂

Some people see sanitary towels and tampons the same as a shitty nappy.
Its bonkers and I really hope in the near future the horrible stigmatism from both many men and women about periods diminishes.
I teach my kids both girls and boys about periods. We don’t hide them or be embarrassed. Towels and tampons are around and available. If there is blood remaining in the toilet when you look, you don’t make a big fuss, you just simply give it another flush. If there are wrapped pads in the bin it’s the same as any other rubbish. No one sniggers or looks embarrassed when they have their period or is taking about someone else having it.

Bathroom bin is for sanitary products. I wrap them generously in toilet roll, so they’re not immediately seen.
Guests can throw whatever they like in my bin. What a weird concept not to.

Uh no, you put waste in the bin, and if you are too lazy to recycle toilet roll tubes or empty shampoo bottles at the time, you put them on e.g the top of the toilet cistern to take to the recycling box later.
I fully expect snotty tissues, used ear buds, hair, san pro, used wet wipes etc to go in the bathroom bin.

You genuinely don't understand how you come across in this post, do you?

Oh bloody hell, I’d not thought of this. My daughter is just starting, so I suppose I’ll have to consider it. (I haven’t had periods for donkeys years, myself, and when I did, I
used lilets, which are flushable or a mooncup)

I’m not bothered about them
being in the bathroom bin wrapped, but I have two gross dogs who are bound to fish them out and shred them all over over the carpet, so I’d better think of something sharpish.

We do have a rule that our bins (except the kitchen) are for dry waste only, because my kid would put food leftovers in and they’d go mouldy (the smell when she hid her broccoli in her bedroom bin before we went on holiday was 🤢) but now I have a rule that we don’t eat anywhere but the breakfast bar because of the dogs bin-raiding, so it’s been a non-issue for a long while.

Facial wipes shouldn't be put down the loo. Nor should tissues

The only things that should go down a loo (in the UK ) are pee, pooh, blood (if using a moon cup ), sick (ie bodily waste) and toilet paper

Other things might be flushable but that's not the same as "should be flushed"

As the guy (aka "The Drain GP" ) who came out to sort our (exterior) drains (which weren't blocked with anything that we'd put down them - there was a separate issue), even an Action Man is "flushable" - doesn't mean it should be flushed (one recent blockage he'd had to deal with )

@Eeksteek lilets are not flushable I’m afraid

We only empty our bathroom bin weekly (unless full before that) so I would rather sanitary waste didn't go in there as the smell wouldn't be nice if it sat there for say 6 days... generally we try to not use any bins that aren't our main one for food / sanitary / nappies.

They went down just fine when I was using them, but point taken that doesn’t mean one should. (It must be twenty years since I used one, so my crimes are only historical!)

YANBU and don't get me started on people that don't have a bin in their bathroom at all! Bathroom bins are for sanitary stuff/used tissues/floss etc, any empty bottles and cardboard tubes I put straight in the recycling in the kitchen.

How does everyone cope in countries where you cannot flush toilet roll?

I don't have a bathroom bin, years of amenorrhea and reusable San pro makes it pointless 99% of the time. I suppose menstruating guests have to take it home, walk down a few dozen stairs and put to the bins or put it in the kitchen bin in full view of basically everyone else in the flat 🤔I'm not sure I can be bothered to change that, might for parties but not for having the odd person over.

There is a semi open cloth nappy bin in there's atm though

I think it’s pretty gross to have someone else’s poo paper in a basket next to you tbh but accept cultural norms are different. I imagine others feel the same 🤷‍♀️

I wish tampon manufacturers (including Lillets ) were made to include in large writing on their boxes and on the individual wrappers the instruction that they should not be flushed down the loo and should be disposed of separately.

I will admit that when I first started using Lillets, I didn't realise this and used to flush them. It was a friend who was also a landlady who explained it to me.

As an aside, apparently even some quilted loo paper can cause blockages. There's apparently a test you can do: put some loo paper in a plastic container with some water. Shake it and leave it a couple of days. Shake it again and all the paper should have disintegrated (some quilted toilet papers apparently don't)

I don't like the smell and I find smells get absorbed into the plastic of bathroom bins. Personally it's not an issue for me now as I use a cup and/or reusable pad but before these I would take used pads straight out to the bin.