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.

I do wonder if there might be a generational difference on this one. For those of us who started our periods in the late 70s/early 80s, we’d have started with awful bulky pads, to be disposed of in whatever bin was available. The arrival of tampons like lilets were marketed as flushable, so suddenly we didn’t have to deal with any messiness!

Also, I didn’t bother reading any instruction leaflets on tampons after the first time, so it was genuinely decades later that I realised they weren’t meant to be flushed and the advice had changed. Making a shift back to the bad old days would have taken some adjusting but the menopause has solved that one for me.

We’ve got a small bin in the bathroom. It’s for pads, tampons, used tissues, and whatever waste you’ve accumulated in the bathroom. Empty bottles go into recycling. The only reason I’ve got bin in the bathroom is that I need to put tampons, pads, tissues etc somewhere. It’s not for decorative purposes. The bin is emptied every other day at least and cleaned regularly.

@prettybird I didn't realise that tissues were different to toilet paper in terms of flushability(?).
When I was a kid (80s) my mum used to carry those little packs of tissues in her handbag and if we ever went to a public toilet which had no toilet paper she used to tear one in half and give half each to my sister and I to use instead!! Now I'm an adult I always carry them too but I allow myself one whole tissue in an emergency! I didn't realise that they weren't flushable as I thought they were similar to more luxury toilet paper but I see that you say that's not properly flushable either. ....
What about that awful tracing paper type toilet paper that you used to get at school/beach toilets???!!!

I would avoid putting my sanitary waste in someone's bathroom bin as it can start to smell quite quickly. In my own, I know I can change the bin regularly but some people may not change their bathroom bin as often so I'd prefer to throw it in an outside bin or wrap it and take it away to throw away at home. Of course if I'm a guest at someone's house for like a week or something I would use the bathroom bin but then I would empty it at the end of the week.

In the outside bin according to that poster. I'm team bathroom bin personally.

@Noseylittlemoo - no idea about the horrible scratchy waxed stuff (somehow it was both at the same time ); had to endure it at both primary school and in my halls of residence many moons ago

We used to buy our own toilet paper on my landing - and eventually persuaded the Hall of Residence to change to "real" toilet paper.

I presume that the coating was biodegradable and the paper underneath it suitably disintegratable (is that a word? )

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.

Putting something in a bin is the definition of discreet.

Why are you rooting around in the bottom of a binbag?

From previous threads it does appear that some women were unfortunately raised to believe that having periods is shameful and filthy. There was a thread recently about whether it's wrong to carry a clean, unused, wrapped tampon in public and a lot of posters claimed to feel physically sick at the mere sight of an unopened, wrapped packet of Tampax, that even putting a packet of tampax in your trolley at Tesco is "disgusting, vile, horrible prancing around waving your tampons showing off and broadcasting that you menstruate) and that women should always carry their handbags to the loo because even holding a clean wrapped tampon in your fist for the 30-second walk to the loo is vile and dirty.

Many of the same themes as here, the word "discreet" being chucked around to justify the need to pretend at all times that periods don't exist, the same "obviously your mother never taught you basic decency and manners" judgy rudeness, and lots of moaning about how woke it is to brag and show off your horrible female bodily waste as though carrying an unopened box of tampax is equivalent to having a bowel movement on the carpet.

I have the Fab Little Bags & dispensers in both my toilets, AND lidded toilet bins for this reason.

I'd never want a guest to feel uncomfortable, and it's also more hygienic sealing up san pro although I do change the bins regularly.

I've been in the situation before when staying at friends ( hubby's friends, not mine for context as it can make a difference when you don't particularly know the people you're staying with very well) and there have been no toilet bins. I put the san pro in a bag and disposed of it when we went out.

I hated it and that's why I 'splashed out' (woohoo) on the above.

I was surprised at there being no bins as we were sharing a bathroom with the couples teenage daughter so I did wonder what their 'rules' for disposal were!

It takes me about ten minutes to walk to my outside bin and back.

Where I used to live, we had no outside bins at all (put black bin bags out on bin day).

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

Washable facial wipes -- it was quite clear.
If I was in the bathroom it would be loo roll to blow my nose.
No need for the face !

I realised that @Snoredoeurve - I was meaning more generally. It still bugs me that I see wipes for sale that are "flushable" and people don't realise that they shouldn't be

I am a nosey bugger but have never once rifled through my bathroom bin to see what other people are putting in it. Rubbish I would imagine

Where do you suggest to put them then?

Wait, tissues as in kleenex type tissues can't go down the loo???
I take tissues to places like concerts/service stations/races etc where they are likely to have run out of toilet roll
We went on holiday in France a few years ago and found very few places supplied toilet roll or soap (often it didn't even look like it had run out, it wasn't obvious they had ever had any to start with) so I ended up taking a bag with a toilet roll and a small bottle of liquid soap on all our day trips!

Apparently tissues don’t break down the same way as loo roll, so you shouldn’t flush them. I’ve used them in an emergency though (I’ve even used kitchen roll in dire circumstances!) but generally, no you should put them down the toilet.

Why would anyone sane go through the contents of the bathroom bin. When it's ready for emptying, you lift out the the liner, tie a knot in it, then chuck it in the general rubbish bin outside.

What a strange lot of period shamers there are on here. Menstruation is normal, not some dirty little secret to be hidden away.

Is this a wind up?! 😵‍💫

I have a little basket in our cloak room with tampons, pads and little bags for your used pad/tampon. Plus a pedal bin with a bag liner. My mother in law grimaced a bit but tough: we don’t hide away toilet paper out of sight, so why tampons?

Periods are just periods, they’re nothing to be ashamed of & I’d hate someone to cart a dirty tempon around in their handbag! That’s absolutely grim

For the people who think putting a wrapped tampon or pad in a bin (primary use; contains waste or rubbish ) is unreasonable, why on earth would you put in a handbag (that might contain your phone/purse/hairbrush....which will be way worse to "contaminate")

I buy nappy bags. When at home Sanitary towel and tampon goes in nappy bag into bathroom bin which is emptied daily. When I am at someone's house I wrap the Sanitary towel in tissue then into nappy bag and then there bathroom bin. Unless they were rummaging in their bin, they'd be none the wiser.

Larger garbage waste? Where on a cruise ship do you find that?? It's only open one day a week.

If you find bullying and cruelty less harsh than a tampon APPLICATOR then you're seriously f'd up.

No one thinks periods are shameful. No one has said that. What has shame got to do with not wanting to deal with someone else's bodily fluids? I don't want to find other people's cum or blood or even snot in a bin I am going to have to empty because it is unhygienic for me. You can't expect me to deal with your literally festering bodily fluids unless you are physically unable to do it yourself

Because sometimes peoples behaviour is a mix of perspectives, although I'm sure a psychologist could write a book on the topic

how are you ‘dealing with it’? All you do is tie up a bin liner, no one’s asking you to pick them out of the bin with your teeth

There was something on Woman's Hour last week about binning or flushing.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m00181ll

Where I grew up, we were not on mains sewage, (rural) so we never flushed. We held a 6th form party, where a few people asked me about the somewhat euphemistic note my mother left by the bin in the bathroom. If she'd just said, "please don't flush pads or tampons," it would at least have been clearer. (Then I went away to uni and discovered people call Dynorod, rather than getting out their own set of draining rods if there's a blockage!)

I have a bin in the bathroom and the downstairs loo. I also have bags, though they're probably not very obvious without asking. When I go away, I take Fab Little Bags and use those if needed. I mostly use a moon cup, but I'm perimenopausal, and on the last random period, I had a day where I had to change every hour, cup and pad.

In reality, I mostly only use the loo in the bathroom, so the bin in the other loo probably is superfluous, but as with other things in life, I'd rather it were there unused and unneeded than vice versa.