Lobby Procter and Gamble to stop using plastic applicators

[RCallway]

Please join me in lobbying Procter and Gamble to stop using unnecessary plastic applicators. Write to:

Bob McDonald - CEO: [email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]

I sent them the following message which you can amend / use if you like:

Dear Bob

I bought Tampax Compak for the first time in a very long time at a shop because I had no alternative options. I was extremely shocked and disappointed to find a plastic, unrecycled, non-degradable applicator. Surely P&C have the skills and global conscience to use a degradable and recycled cardboard applicator - if it has to use one at all?! Using petroleum-based plastic is an extremely backward step - both an anti-green and anti-social choice. I understand some women feel the need to use applicators but please, please, please look at alternative options or save money and the environment and drop the applicator altogether.

Best wishes

[dementedma]

Tampax Pearl are super comfy. Not getting the pinching thing at all.cardboard ones stick, no applicators too fiddly.
I'm sticking with the plastic

[Gobbolinothewitchscat]

Why has Bob not appeared on this thread yet?! ungrateful environmentally wasteful, tampon flogger

[UterusUterusGhali]

This is one of my favourite threads ever.

[Lilypad34]

AIBU to find this thread hilarious?!

[ifancyashandy]

Question: is putting a moon cup in place similar to putting in a diaphragm?

[QueenStromba]

I was fine with lillets when I was a young teenager but as I got older I needed superplus tampons which were difficult to place correctly without an applicator. So glad I don't need to worry about it anymore - mooncups really are the next best thing to not having periods at all.

[BananaPie]

Cardboard are fine, agree plastic is marginally easier, but they're also much pricier. Now a mooncup convert anyway - just wish I'd started using one sooner! Weirdly have never got on with lillets.

[MrsDWinchester]

I feel Procter and Gamble should be boycotted for their cruel and unnecessary animal testing. There is absolutely no need for them to torture innocent animals.

[Gobbolinothewitchscat]

Tampax pearl is the Rolls Royce of tampons. Fact.

[YoniMitchell]

Actually I like the plastic applicators too - the card ones always got bend or mashed-up in your bag, didn't 'slip' in or really work too well.

If you're in that much of a state about their impact on the environment, then use non-applicator tampons or a mooncup.

My fanjo, my choice what goes up there and how. Don't meddle with my muff.

[FitzgeraldProtagonist]

I love tampax pearl. Glidy, non pinchy, do an ultra light version. YABU.

[HorryIsUpduffed]

I'd rather P&G and others used the finite resource to make medical equipment (etc) that can't be made of cardboard, (eg cannulas, IV bags) than tampon applicators, so I see the OP's point.

On a related note, I haven't seen tampons for light flow for years. I can see 3 or 4 teardrop ones everywhere but I swear they used to do 2 and even 1. My flow is so light I can't use a cotton mouse at all.

Tip for non-applicator though (slightly gross). Use lube to grease the sides slightly, to aid insertion. Only the tip makes contact with the blood, and it absorbs downwards.

[BramshawHill]

I must have stubby little fingers because I need the applicator to reach a point where I can't feel the tampon plus it stops the terrible, terrible chafing on the way. If applicators were discontinued I'd have to rely on pads (gross) or venture into the world of mooncups which scares me

[BramshawHill]

I must have stubby little fingers because I need the applicator to reach a point where I can't feel the tampon plus it stops the terrible, terrible chafing on the way. If applicators were discontinued I'd have to rely on pads (gross) or venture into the world of mooncups which scares me

[CheesyPoofs]

I'm a lillet user too.

I don't see the point in applicators at all.

What's wrong with your finger?

[livinginwonderland]

can't stand applicator tampons - regular lillets for me.

[Iwantmybed]

DH works in the plastics industry. Please continue to use the plastic.

(Prefer a mooncup myself, hate tampons)

[littlemonkeychops]

I don't see the point in plastic or cardboard, neither is necessary IMO, both are just extra waste so i wouldn't buy either

[QueenStromba]

I have a white linen skirt and it wouldn't even occur to me that I shouldn't wear it during my period Sparkling.

[OverAndAbove]

Not in the mood to be made to feel guilty about what I stick up my fanjo out of necessity. In all senses

[TheRealFellatio]

Nope. The plastic ones are so much easier and less painful to use - I love them.

I am all for cutting down on wastage and unnecessary production/use of plastic and paper in this world, but this is one of the uses I feel I can justify.

[Anthracite]

I wish people, like the OP, could be more educated about plastics.

Where does she think plastics come from? We do not drill oil with the primary purpose of making plastics. We drll oil to provide fuel. The heavier oil fractions are poor fuels so they are cracked into more useful fractions. The byproducts, alkenes, are not useful for fuels but are ideal at turning into polymers - a virtually free raw material for an amazing array of useful products.

What would the OP propose to do with these alkenes other than making plastics?

[musicmadness]

I use a meluna cup 95% of the time but as my periods seem to follow a completely random cycle I have to carry sanpro with me at all times and tampons are much easier to have in my bag.
They are brilliant if I come on when I'm out until I can get home and sort the cup out, and Plastic Applicators are far more comfortable to use! I can't use non-applicator ones despite regularly using a cup and cardboard is not nearly as convenient.
I only use them a couple of times a year but I definitely wouldn't want them disappearing from sale!

[SeeBoobies]

Plastic are so much easier to use. What's this pinching nonsense? What on earth are you ladies doing wrong?

[WhoKnowsWhereTheTimeGoes]

only sort I've been able to use for the last 10 years due to multiple prolapses following forceps delivery. Mooncup leaked badly due to these and was a waste of money. However I only use about 2 tampons a year because I have the Mirena coil and virtually non existent periods so I don't feel in the least bit guilty about using plastic applicators.