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 🙈

It's usually sewers and drains that they accumulate in and block. Your toilet may have seemed OK, but that doesn't mean that they did no harm.

Also, they have to be manually removed from the system if they do make it to the sewage works because they don't mulch down and degrade. So someone has to physically shovel them and other trash out and send it to landfill.

So don't be smug. You did cause difficulty even if you didn't realise that at the time. We now know better and I would hope you wouldn't encourage your family to continue flushing them.

Not really. I don't mean to be crude but sometimes it just comes out by the time you've sat on the loo it's already out..

You wouldn't think to carry a bloody tampon around and put it in the bin. It's not like a pad what you can easily roll up a used tampon is very MESSY. Have you actually used a tampon 🙄

I was taught to flush them late 70s/early 80s but within a few years learned it was wrong, I remember lots of publicity in the early 90s about them being washed up on beaches etc and assumed everyone knew nowadays, I’m obviously wrong.

Never blocked a toilet, that I'm aware of.

That's the point tho. You may not be aware.

The tampon will flush in the toilet. It's further along the sewage system, in the pipes, that generally a blockage would occur.

It has been a legal requirement in the UK since 1991 that all workplaces provide a suitable receptacle for the disposal of sanitary products as they cannot be flushed.

Sorry but I just can’t agree that signs telling you not to flush them aren’t in the vast majority of public toilets and are usually on the sanitary bin itself. I think it was 1992 that the regulation was introduced in this country setting out that they must not be flushed.

and me. They were marketed as flushable, so were the cardboard applicators. That was how you disposed of them.

@MrsBennetsPoorNerves

I'm not doubting you but I'm still surprised. The signs are everywhere I go, including fairly ramshackle toilets eg sports club facilities.

Equally, reasonably regularly there's commentary on fatbergs, issues of waste & sewage & the consequences for the waste system & the environment.

You wouldn't think to carry a bloody tampon around and put it in the bin. It's not like a pad what you can easily roll up a used tampon is very MESSY. Have you actually used a tampon

That's such a weird perspective. You just wrap it in toilet tissue & place in the bin. In public toilets there's a bin obviously, in my own bathrooms I've a small bin in each, emptied every day or 2. Occasionally yes I've been a guest in someone's house, where there's been no bin. I've just wrapped it extra well & disposed of it at the first opportunity / suitable place.

It's really not a big deal. Or especially messy.

I started in about 1990 or 1991 and was told to flush - sanitary towels to be ripped in half before flushing!

I was still at primary school - no bins provided in pupils' toilets but I had special permission to use the teachers' toilets (which was mortifying).

At secondary school (girls' school) there was only one sanitary bin per toilet block of ten toilets so you either got in that one or just flushed it down one of the other nine. Waiting for the one loo to be available would have indicated you were on your period and therefore also mortifying! Again, no other bin provided.

Public toilets were gross and to be avoided as much as possible.

I have certainly seen news items about father's, but I don't recall any mention of tampons in relation to these.

Like I say, I don't flush personally and haven't done for years, but I don't think it's that obvious personally.

To be fair, I don't use public toilets that frequently. There are definitely no signs in the toilet at work, which is the public loo I use most frequently. I don't tend to use loos in shops and restaurants unless I really have to!

Fatbergs not fathers...flipping autocorrect!

I wouldn't exactly call it weird. Tampons come out sometimes what part is weird? I think you and others are just been self righteous quite frankly.

There's no need for some of the comments here.

I guess there is is little chance then that anyone other than felloe septic tank owners knowing that you shouldn't flush tissues (as opposed to toilet roll) then?

Thought I'd just add another comment to 'bump' this thread incase anyone else is still flushing tampons.
Definitely in 98/99 I was told to bin them and the paperwork in the box said to bin them.

Just a reminder that you should be reading that paperwork at least once a year or so to remind yourselves of the symptoms of TSS that can be caused by tampon use - don't just rely on what your mother told you back in '82.

The old packaging very clearly did state that the tampons themselves were flushable. Many of us were taught this growing up and probably never even thought to question it. I certainly wouldn't have done if I hadn't seen it on here.

If that is a Tampax product that was sold in the UK it must be over 30 years old

Sorry..... what? I just flushed one 🤔

@EarringsandLipstick to be fair I've only been using tampons the last 2 months as prior to that I've always used pads. And defo never flushed one of those! So I guess I didn't know what I didn't need to know. Apart from for 2 months; and now I do know!

I have never flushed tampons or sanitary towels down the toilet, but then again I was one of the people answering blocked sewer phone calls from the public at the local water and sewerage company.
I've also been to the treatment works and seen my site colleagues shovelling the "unflushables" like wet wipes sanitary products and condoms off the inlet screens and into skips for disposal in landfill.

It probably is. I searched for 1980s tampax packaging. My point being that this is what many of us grew up with. Obviously, things have changed, but I don't think it's surprising that so many people are unaware. There needs to be a proper public education campaign.

I genuinely thought the signs in public toilets were because of the higher demands on their plumbing. We were told tampons were flushable so that's what we did; it never occurred to me that advice had changed so why would I have ever thought to go and check? It seems so obvious now of course, and I'm embarrassed at my lack of cop on, but surely there needs to be a publicity campaign around this to actually make women think? Because while I would never dream of putting wipes down the toilet, in my mind tampons just never fell into a similar bracket! And I know I'm not alone - it's a big reason why so many friends have said they wouldn't change from tampons to the moon cup. The flushable element was the selling point 25+ years ago and for many it still is!

In the 90's people were told to flush them. I remember being taught to tear a sanitary towel in half before flushing in my early teens, never seemed quite right to me and I lived near the sea so saw all the detritus floating about on the beach and made up my own mind not to flush them.

Why would you think that?

Well, I'd pretty much worked out where the blood was coming from by that point, so didn't really need to squint my way through the tiny printed leaflet that largely consisted of a picture of a woman with her foot up on the toilet and an arrow pointing at the angle she needed to get it in. As even pregnancy brain didn't make me forget where my vagina was, I didn't feel the end to remind myself by reading the leaflet in 2018 when I next had a period.

I always flushed them back in the day too. Sanitary towels as well, the advice on the package was to rip in half lenghtways and flush. I wasn't the only one, I'd often see an unflushed item in the school loos and those sanitary bins did not exist!