Am I the only one who thought tampons were flushable?!

[sunseaandme]

I'm 32, and only recently have I discovered tampons aren't flushable. I always thought they were, I can't remember where this thought came from, I assume my mum told me they were when I started my period, but that pads were obviously not flushable. I feel so guilty for flushing them all this time (obviously I won't do it anymore!). Am I the only one?? I realise I probably sound like an idiot as it probably says on the packet not to flush them but I never thought to check 🙈

what the fuck?!

I flushed them for years because that's what I was taught. (Born in the early 1970s sp probably started periods in early 1980s).

I learned from MN years ago that I shouldn't be flushing them and obviously stopped, but I have no doubt that lots of people do still flush.

Don't have many periods these days in any case!!

They were advertised as boing flushable as well as certain pads I remember Jackie advertising them.

Sanitary towels obviously

Ahhhh, so you're the reason my water bill is going up 😜

We get a lot of clogged systems in our local area. At least you know now!

Just wrap in loo roll and pop in the bin - that's how I've always been shown

I remember the “girls’ talk” in 1990 when I was 10. The teacher told us to flush pads and tampons down the toilet.

One girl said “my sister just puts her in the bin”. The teacher looked horrified and said “I think it is a bit nicer to flush them down the toilet”.

For those of you who are (or were until you read this thread) still flushing, please, please, please don't any more!

We have a mains sewer running underneath the bottom of our garden, with a manhole cover just inside our boundary. 3 times in the past 10 years, the sewer has blocked and the manhole cover gets dislodged. And then the contents of the sewer floods over into our garden. Tampons, wipes, towels.... (along with all the human waste). It is utterly, utterly revolting. Even now, several years after the last flood, the odd bit of sewer contents appears when I weed the garden.

So your tampons that you're merrily flushing away will end up on someone's lawn if the sewer gets blocked. Please just wrap them and put them in the bin.

Those signs were not in all public toilets in the 1970s and 1980s. In fact, in our town there was little of any use at all in there.

Also, at that time tampons were definitely heavily marketed as flushable. It was loud and proud on the box.

I'm 56 now so just about (I hope) finished with needing sanitary products. I hardly used tampons again after my first pregnancy at 28 but before then had often flushed them because it had been drummed into us that you could. Even that you should. On the odd occasion that I used them after that time I never again flushed them as I somehow became aware that that had changed.

I never flushed sanitary towels. I always rolled them up, wrapped them in toilet paper and binned them.

It's all very well for the pearl clutchers to rant "OMG you idiots, it's so obvious. How could you not have known?" but they were definitely sold as flushable, our mothers told us they were flushable, in school we were also told that they were flushable. Nowhere was there any indication that they weren't.

I flushed them for 40 years without a second thought

I'm 53 and we had a special meeting at school in the first or second year (y7/8) to tell us not to flush towels and tampons. No matter what it might say on the packet.

Pretty sure Jackie and other magazines would mention it occasionally, too.

We had special incinerators in the toilet rooms (though I remember them mainly for the number of times they were not working properly...)

[One of the staff told a story of how she once had to get a plumber out to unblock the loo, and was relieved it was only a nappy (single-use nappies were relatively new at the time). Can't help thinking she'd forgotten we were the same cohort as her son... ]

I’ve been menstrual since 1995 and they’ve said DO NOT flush in all that time so anyone younger really has no excuse

I started periods in around 1980 aged 12. I was told that tampons were flushable (the marketing and packaging said so), so for years I flushed the used tampon down the toilet, put the cardboard applicator and paper wrapper in the bin and put sanitary pads in the bin. I learned that tampons weren’t flushable on mumsnet but by then had been doing it for years.

In the back recesses of my memory banks? Yes I do remember an incinerator thing in the toilets!

The only thing to flush down the loo is pee, poo and toilet paper. Never flush anything else, even if it says flushable. It may well flush, but it's awful for the sewer system and when they get to the sewage treatment works.

I didn’t say anyone should do that.

Yeah I also thought that were flushable until DO questioned it. ‘Of course they are!’ I said… before googling… oh. I don’t do it anymore 🥴

Back in the seventies and early eighties public toilets were dire, certainly in our area. You were lucky if there was a horrendous and overflowing bin for paper towels, let alone a sanitary products disposal bin in every cubicle.

It genuinely used to say it in the instructions that you could and should flush them. I remember getting a pack at school in the early 00s. Even then my mum told us not to flush them but it was probably on the packaging for years so I can imagine many people don’t realise.

I’ve been using them for over 40 years - they ‘used’ to be, but I’d say it’s probably 2 decades since it was discouraged.

I’ve never flushed them.
Even in the 90s I remember being told as much as the companies claim they’re flushable that they block up sewage systems. Maybe I just happened to encounter a couple of people who knew.
I moved onto a mooncup over 20 years ago though so haven’t thought about it since

Mumsnet never fails to astonish me, I can’t believe there are people out there who think it’s ok to flush tampons down the toilet.

for those who have since they were younger and were taught it- have you not seen the news reports about fatbergs and clogged sewers which always specifically says about tampons being part of this issue? I

Think we need a monthly (pardon the pun) thread on this to catch those incapable of reading instructions

ODFOD

They were marketed as flushable and I did flush them, for years. I found out about 7 years or so ago.

Another vote for the loincup though, until mother nature takes back her 'gift' 🙄

So do I. Nobody used ours because it was so noisy.

It was a gas fired monstrosity which would automatically light itself when you closed the flap. It made a tremendously loud and high pitched screaming noise which could be heard along several corridors and throughout the maths and English departments. Horrendous thing. It advertised very clearly that someone had a period. So as self-conscious teenage girls we learned to avoid it.