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.

"sandpaper"

Yup.

As I said, trust me, I am NOT happy about the added expense [hangry] [hgrin]

I really hope you're wrong.

Have you actually ever tried it?

I find that sometimes the idea I have in my head of how things will be, is quite different to the reality.

Washing sanitary towels is no harder than washing anything else and ceratinly less yukky than clearing food bits out of the plughole.

I use washable san pro.
I don't like tampons on the beaches anymore than the applicators.

I get the environmental argument, but still think YAB a bit U - plastic ones don't get unusably squashed in your bag, they go in a lot easier and you don't have to throw them away unused when they've got bashed out of shape.

I always use applicator tampons - when you're out, you can't wash your hand in the toilet cubicle, can you?

I have a very heavy flow with my periods and find the cardboard applicatiors completely useless. They get very soggy very quickly and then I can't slide the one tube over the other to get the applicator back out again iyswim. I use a lot of non applicator tampons, but find that I need an applicator when out and about due to the amount of blood I get on my hand...most public loos don't have a sink in the cubicle.

As a lot of people have said, it's not the applicators which are the problem per se, it's the way they are disposed of.

sea whistle [hgrin]

Quicklookbusy perfectly happy to wash my Sanpro - they are way more absorbant than plastic/paper ones. They arent dripping with blood !
I just pop them in the towel wash.

My teenage DD uses washable sanpro at night and was amazed at how comfy and also how absorbant they are -no more getting up in the night to wash and change.
OP yanbu

Always wanting to do my bit for the environment (why else would I put up with those ridiculous energy saving lightbulbs?!) I bought a mooncup. Yeah, it's not for me. It's fiddly, it's messy, and I had (quite short) acrylic nails on at that point and I very nearly did myself some serious damage. I've heard that it can be easier to use after you have had a baby, so maybe I'll give it another go next year.

Anyway, back to the point. I can't believe that people flush the applicators down the toilet. I mean, they're plastic. They float. HOW do people manage to flush them?!

It never occurred to me to flush them, actually.

But we should be beyond days when women had to leak all over bits of cloth and then wash them out.

Well I really don't like the idea of it, and I used washable nappies with DD2.

Do you have to soak them, like you do with nappies?

I suppose we all have our limits. I breast fed, used washable nappies, make most of our meals form scratch, recycle, put on a jumper rather than put the heating on, but I wouldn't wash sanitary towels.

Exactly what qlb said.

YANBU about the plastic applicators OP. Agree they are easier to use but lots of things make life esier, doesn't make them OK.

I have a little container in the bathroom with a lid . Use towel fold into the centre and do up popper - everything is contained inside - it looks like a little square of fabric .They have a plastic section so they are very similar to disposable towels in size and shape. I have never had a leak - I use them overnight and mooncup during the day.
At some point that day if I am putting a wash on then I put it in the machine-unfold towel as I put it in . No soaking/mess etc.
The idea that its like using rags etc is the usual comment I get if someone asks me - they really are like disposables but made from fabric.
I use the Minki fleece or cotton ones.

Washing nappies 100 x more gag worthy than washing Sanpro
Dont miss those days !

ok, but this is a really grim question, so im sorry. But sarah - what happens to the clots and things? do you not end up with them in your container? or in your washing machine.

I just dont want to be dealing with that. I know its natural, but i dont like it.
I breast fed and everything and do what i can, but i just cant ever see me doing that ( and i once worked in a cloth nappy shop.. so know all about that. And STILL used disposbles)

I never got over the argument that yes, nappies dont end up in landfil, but the energy used to wash and rewash etc.. them.. nequates any benefit.

I also began to worry about the chemicals/bleach etc used in disposables and what were the implications for my health - still havent got any real answers about that one. I used the organic disposable ones for a while and then got a mooncup.

If I weren't menopausal (and therefore having very few periods now) I could be persuaded to buy washable sanpro. But I absolutely would have to cold water soak them before washing and they'd have to go in a hot wash with the swimming towels or coloured towels. I have my eco limits too.

Periods freak me out.

I am careful in my disposal of applicators but agree that there are limits and bigger environmental problems to tackle.

Can't stand seeing condoms on a beach either but wouldn't insist we stopped using them. Would just wish people disposed of them properly, too.

The thing that annoys the bejesus out of me is that if people must use disposable nappies, why the chuff can't they shake the poo down the loo? All the people on my local forum whingeing about how smelly their bins were going to be when the council went down to bi-weekly collections for landfill - I just wanted to get hold of them all and shake them by the shoulders!!

Clots ! I dont tend to get that many clots -sorry if this is TMI but when I empty my mooncup the blood is thick but liquid . The washable sanpro absorbs the blood into the pad so its not sitting there on the surface in the way it does with disposables.
My periods have always been heavy on the first 2 days-used to need hourly tampon changes -with the mooncup its 4 hourly but the blood never forms clots.
Now you have got me wondering if there is something in disposables that makes the blood clot more.

I've not read the whole thread, but I have to say that even if plastic applicators gave only been around a short while in the UK, the US had them 20+ years ago when I started my period.

"They sort of stick,"

Oh!

I always used to put a bit of vaseline around the end as I found that the driest bit but the sides seemed to be OK iyswim.

I remember one plastic applicator some years ago cut in when it opened-put me off them completely!

Maybe the new ones are better.

watchout - given that I had dreaded first changing and then washing dirty nappies and quickly got over both, I'm open to teh idea that I would experience the same with washable pads.

(Re the nappies and energy use - early reports assumed 100% tumble drying which does negate many benefits, but mostly line drying and using on more than one child can make a massive difference: see Table 4.6 in this document: randd.defra.gov.uk/Document.aspx?Document=WR0705_7589_FRP.pdf)

OP - I had honestly never thought about it before. I'm one of those who can't get it in properly with a finger or paper applicators ( they just kind of ... stick?) so found compaks a godsend. But this will motivate me to try sea sponges instead. (Can't use mooncup at work, no sink, but sponges I could store in wetbags like nappies).

I've used everything bar a Mooncup.

Cardboard ones are longer and less easy to discreetly pop in a purse or up your sleeve.

Non applicator ones can be trickier to insert when your flow is light.

Compax are very, very easy to insert and are well...compact...BUT I've had the wrapper rip open in my bag rendering the tampon useless and (maybe it's just me) but on more than one occasion I've been a bit too enthusiastic in extending the tube and pulled the smaller one right out. They're a right bugger to put back together and retrieve the string. I actually bought a box of Compax by mistake and do like them, but feel too bad about the plastic. I'd recommend them for young girls just starting out with tampons.