to think plastic applicators for Tampax are disgraceful and unjustifiable?

[appropriatelytrained]

I sent DH to buy me a pack of tampons recently from the local shop. He came back with Tampax Compak (the only choice).

I'm no green activist, but I was shocked to see non-biodegradable, non-recyclable plastic applicators used for this product.

It seems to me that applicators are generally pretty unnecessary but to make them out of plastic just for convenience and comfort (Tampax's response to my query) makes them an unjustifiable vanity product.

Churning out plastic applicators for no genuine purpose when the company know (despite what they may say) that these products will end up flushed down the toilet, is disgraceful.

Right, I'll get off my soap box. I don't post here usually but I just felt really angered by this when so many companies are trying very hard to change the necessary packaging of their products, this company is producing unnecessary packaging without thought of consequence.

YABU, have always used non applicators until recently I just can't get the buggers in, cardboard ones hurt and don't slide so plastic ones are great.
All my sanpro in wrapped in nappy bags and binned.
I did use a moon cup but had an unfortunate incident so stopped!

It's quite irritating that so many people are fixating on the one (just one I think) poster who uses applicator tampons because they don't like sticking their fingers up their vagina rather than the many other posters including myself who have pointed out that it's a necessity in term of comfort and usability from a physiological POV. I'd love to use non applicator ones again, seriously. They're so much cheaper. I resent having to fork out on branded sanpro rather than own brand (bloody Tesco withdrawing their version)

Cardboard ones are longer and tend to get bent or break when you carry them in your handbag or rucksack. The very thin paper wrap tears and breaks easily, making the tampons non-sterile. If as much as a drop of water falls on them, the wrap breaks. Sometimes they bend and fall apart when you're trying to put them on. Unless you are well-lubricated, sometimes they stick to your inner labia, and it hurts. Again, if you don't lubricate that well, sometimes it is damn hard to push them in, especially after taking the previous one out.

The plastic ones have none of these problems.

A no-brainer for me, really.

If you are too squeamish to put your fingers near or "up your fanjo"

How many of the "I so do NOT have an issue with my vagina" people enshew the carbon footprint of tissues or hankies and instead blow their nose with their hand and just wash it off? Or wipe it onto a handy nearby tree?

If not, does that not underline that it is less "vagina and menstral blood is a special kind of dirty" issues and more a case of people not being that keen of getting covered in bodliy fluids in general ?

And until the reusable fem.san.pro imdusty takes a firm stand agains the woman shaming being done in the promotion of their consumer products at grass roots level, I am bycotting them.

There is no point trying to keep the planet habitable for humans if we are just going to keep repeating the same old shit. Like shoving one gender down.

I am really glad I have seen this thread. Since having DCs 4&5 I thought it was just me who coldnt use non plastic ones even though my periods are much heavier than they used to be.

Its not something I tend to discuss so its reassuring to know I am not the only one.

Come sit next to me love.

I used to be able to shove any old tampon up there, now have to use applicator ones, unless I start to enjoy the "my tampon is escaping" feeling.

Also post child. But I had a c section, so it wasn't caused by birth. Think his big fat head squashing down on me for months on end deformed my vagina or something.

Or maybe when he was head up, the kicking of the shit out of my cervics led to some kind of internal collapse as my vagina tried to run away from the battering it was getting from above?

Either way I am blaming him cos I refuse to consider this is some kind of aging fanjo syndrome. I can barely cope with grey hairs appearing in my nether region, if the insides are going geriatirc on me too, I think I will cry.

thefirstmrsdeveerei i never had a problem till after babies no4 and 5, used the cardboard ones just fine, but since the last two the cardboard one HURT! so the tampax pearl which i now use at hideous expense are great, they are a very thing plasitc and 'shiny' and very smooth and just much much better.

"I don't know anyone under 40 who uses applicators"

My teenage daughter does.

She finds it easier than a non applicator & possible might be in the not wanting to stick her finger up herself camp.

Passes thefirstMrsDeVeerie fresh from the mocha proper Italian coffee in unfeasibly large cup

cos period is due and my vagina is disctinctly not happy. Am avioding any sudden movements that might startle her and cause he to get even crosser with the universe than she already is.

I can understand her upsetmwith life in general. Once she was a smooth passage, and these days resembles something that could be used as a model for a curly slide at a waterpark.

God I'm sexy.

Please can someone explain the idea the people under 40 don't use applicators? Were applicators not fashionable post 1980 or something?

well thats bollocks cos my mum is over 50 and until she had a hysterectomy she used tampons with applicators, i used to pinch them as a teen.

fastweb super absorbers are no longer used in tampons, see here (Wiki, sorry). They are still used in pads and nappies.

There are still rather nasty things in tampons such as dioxides, that the jury is still out on, unless you use organic cotton ones.

There is much anecdotal evidence, to which I would add my own, that using a mooncup or other 'natural sanitary wear' such as washables, does result in a lighter, shorter, far less painful period.

I started using washables after a friend suggested them as my periods were just so heavy and painful, the reason I would now use nothing else is they are so much frigging nicer and higher performing in every way. I don't sit bleeding onto cloth, suffering for the good of the planet. The environmental issue is just a bonus.

I used to dread periods now they barely bother me at all.

"How many of the "I so do NOT have an issue with my vagina" people enshew the carbon footprint of tissues or hankies and instead blow their nose with their hand and just wash it off? Or wipe it onto a handy nearby tree?"

Don't be daft! if I was in the loo near a sink when I needed to blow my nose I might be able to do without the tissue as I could wipe my hands. That isn't usually the case though is it? And I am not sure that wiping snot on objects in a public place would be seen as pretty antisocial.

Re plastic milkbottles! I totally agree, I would do without if I could but trying to find any shop that sells milk in glass is a fruitless exercise and there are no milk men left round our way. Anyway there are presumably practical reasons for supplying milk in plastic - weight being a fairly obvious one. And the fact is that most LA will recycle them.

Plastic applicators are only there because people buy them - if no-one bought them they'd stop making them. From the manufacturers POV the only advantage is that people pay a premium for them.

Please stop with the spurious comparisons!

at my local sainsburys you can buy milk in a sort of plastic bag that can be recycled and then pour it into your own jug at home. i dont cos it seems a faff and i would probably drop it and have it split open on my way home! but i have seen people that do buy it.

and whilst i find it annoying that i have to pay more for the plastic applicator, i dont care what the manufacturors reasons are, they ARE more comfortable for me to use and dont hurt like others do, thats my logic, why suffer when i dont have to?!

Aurynne tampons aren't sterile, whether they're wrapped in paper or plastic, applicator or non-applicator

Milk comes in cartons that can be recycled here (Germany).

Used to buy the plastic bags but haven´t seen them for years!

Had something like this to keep it in.

They used to deliver plastic bags of milk on Mull. Never seen them anywhere else.

i have only seen them in the one big sainsburys in town and only cos a bloke bought one and then when he put it down on the conveyor belt thingy it split open BIG mess. he seemed quite convinced they were a good idea tho and went off to fetch another one whilst the till operator tried desperately to clean it up, all 6pints with paper towel, poor woman.

I am 27, and I use applicators. I physically can't get a tampon in without an applicator.

tyler80, tampons have to be tested for the presence of several pathogens. They may not be 100% sterile, but they're pretty close. I am a molecular biologist, so I have some knowledge about it.

And what I can assure you is, when the wrap breaks, and you carry it around in your bag with your phone, letters that have been rained on, candy wrapper and other crap, the tampon is less than reliable, especially for someone prone to genital infections like me.

The Compaq ones with the plasticky wrapping are much more resistant to physical tear, they are waterproof and rarely break. I know, I have been using both kinds of tampons for years.

"why suffer when i dont have to?!"

Exactly. Apparently we should though.

Single use disposable, non-recyclable, recently invented, plastic waste which often ends up being flushed down toilets and turns up on beaches.
Not a milk container which contributes to fuel-efficient transport and can then be recycled in the majority of the UK.
Not a toy (a trampoline on the beach could be fun!) which could be used by 3 generations of children, or many more when recycled through charity shops etc.
It may contribute to greater comfort and ease for some people, but in my opinion this does not justify their existence. At the very least these and other single-use disposable items should have a 'green tax'#on them which contributes directly to cleaning up the mess they leave.

Things are either sterile or not, no such thing as 99% sterile. Fair enough that plastic wrappers are more resilient and I think having a preference is perfectly fine. For other people reading though I think it's worth pointing out that tampons aren't sterile and not perpetuating a myth.