To be surprised that people flush tampons and towels still?

[Pipbin]

So many people seem to fail to see that it's a problem.

This program: www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b0419n5m/watermen-a-dirty-business-episode-1 showed why it's a problem.

[Pipbin]

I think you can flush moist toilet tissue, but not baby wipes.

[Ewieindwie1]

Sorry, sad I no longer have periods and can't do things right. Hurrah for ablation.

[Ewieindwie1]

Never knew about not flushing tampons: had never been told not to. Have never put wipes or San towels down. Embarrassingly just asked DDs who said 'duh mum'. Feel quite sad I no l

[WhoKnowsWhereTheTimeGoes]

There was a lot of publicity about not flushing stuff 15 or 20 years ago, images of sanitary towels on beaches etc, I stopped flushing back then.

[violetlights]

I had no idea you weren't supposed to flush tampons (I thought it common sense not to flush sanitary towels because they have so much plastic in them). And I didn't know you weren't supposed to flush "moist toilet tissue" (i.e. wet wipes). The packaging instructs you to!

Why on earth don't the water companies just put a note through your door telling you this stuff????!!!

[TheWanderingUterus]

I wonder when the flushing thing came in.

I was reading something earlier describing the first public toilet sanitary towel bins - a enamelled box with a slot in the lid and a bottom that flipped open to allow it to be emptied easily by the attendant so they didnt have to touch the pads. This was the 1930's (1935 to be precise) and the last line says:

'The less scrupulous solve the difficulty by putting the napkin down the lavatory drain'.

So women were doing it even then and I'm guessing thats why sanitary bins were brought in in the first place.

FWIW I dont, not even the little pieces of paper backing. I managed to completely block my parents toilet drain by doing this in the mid 90's, never forgotten the cringing conversation about it I had with my father who had to clear it out.

[gotnotimeforthat]

M phone is intent on not letting me finish my message!!

Anyway, I used to bin my tampons until one day my little sister went to put a toilet roll tube in the bin and saw a blood soaked tampon and tissue screamed, cried and asked if one of us was going to die.

I always flushed them after that. After moving out I returned to binning them.

[gotnotimeforthat]

I used to bi

[gotnotimeforthat]

I used to bin my tam

[NeedsAsockamnesty]

Sorry thought I had clicked on the whole thread then got distracted so did not realise it was more than 1 page

[NeedsAsockamnesty]

These ones are described as biodegradable

www.amazon.co.uk/Scensibles-Disposable-Hygiene-Bags-Petite/dp/B001PYQE78?tag=mumsnet&ascsubtag=mnforum-21

Afwiw its not just about the environment in terms of the tampons turning up in the sea and on the beach, it's causing your street to be covered in the contents of the drains as well

[leedsgirl231]

When I first started, my mum used to say "rip them in half, flush one bit then flush the other" but then we got a bin.
I would never flush it now. One time I got the toilet blocked at a pub, never, ever again.

[TillyTellTale]

Well, they have and haven't, onehandflapping. But people prefer to buy Tampax for some reason. If it was possible to invent tampons that degraded in water, the investment into research and development would look like a dead loss, financially!

If your local supermarket stocks Natracare, buy those, and get a compost bin.

[Pipbin]

Well tell me why 'I don't see why materials scientists can't come up with a bio-degradable tampon' isn't twaddle?
My comment about peados is to illustrate why it's just not as easy as all that. Just because someone thinks something should be possible it doesn't mean it is.

And I'm not on a crusade here. Flush what you want down your loo, it's you who will be knee deep in your own shit not me.

[KissesBreakingWave]

Well, patronising twaddle is the correct response to ignorant twaddle. Deploying actual arguments would be like trying to play chess with a pigeon.

[OneHandFlapping]

Yeah, yeah Pibkin. I know you're on a crusade here.

But I think you need to work on your actual arguments here, instead of resorting to patronising twaddle.

Oh and you managed to bring paedophiles into a discussion about sanpro. Really, you are wasted on Mumsnet. You should stand for parliament.

[Pipbin]

I don't see why materials scientists can't come up with a bio-degradable tampon.

I love comments like this. It means 'I have no idea about the science behind this but I think it should happen anyway.'
It's like saying 'why can't you bake a cake out of chicken and beef, it's all food.'
I remember hearing an MP saying 'why can't someone in California invent a way of stopping peadophiles using the internet?' It's the same thing. You, scientist, invent perpetual motion, looks easy enough.

[NatashaGurdin]

OneHandFlapping

I don't see why materials scientists can't come up with a bio-degradable tampon.

I think that other posters have said upthread why this really can't work.

And it's well overdue for water companies to stop releasing unfiltered (and presumably unprocessed) sewage onto beaches. Why should we jump through hoops to cover up for them putting profit ahead of their responsibilities?

While it is true that responsibilities should come before profit and a lot of people believe it was criminal to sell off public utilities, I think it is up to us to be responsible too and make it easier for the systems to work as they should not more difficult.

[WhoKnowsWhereTheTimeGoes]

You don't have to touch the tampon, pull the string with one hand catch it with a little wad of loo roll in the other hand, wrap and bin, neither disgusting or unhygienic. Public loos invariably have a bin so you don't have to leave the cubicle with it.

[OneHandFlapping]

I flushed tampons for nearly 40 years. They said they were flushable, and tbh, wrapping a dripping tampon in acres of loo paper is disgusting and unhygienic. Fancy coming out of a public loo looking as if you'd committed a murder?

I don't see why materials scientists can't come up with a bio-degradable tampon.

And it's well overdue for water companies to stop releasing unfiltered (and presumably unprocessed) sewage onto beaches. Why should we jump through hoops to cover up for them putting profit ahead of their responsibilities?

[phantomnamechanger]

as with the poster below, I just thrown the washable pads in with the normal light coloured washing - I wash either lights or darks every day, so they are never sat around waiting for longer than 48 hours and the other poster is also right - it is the chemicals in disposable pads that cause the smells and we have been conned into thinking it's us and periods are stinky, they aren't - the washable pads do not smell at all either when being worn or waiting to be washed. we just put the dirties in a small bin in the bathroom, no soaking required. Its dead easy. I guess if you are on your own and not washing more than a couple of loads a week it might be trickier to manage .

[KissesBreakingWave]

Solids in the sewage end up on beaches because a lot of the more Victorian bits of the sewage systems of coastal towns - which still work just fine - were built for much smaller towns than they're currently under, with a lot less asphalt and concrete.

So, said sewers are generally a lot fuller, and when it rains, less of the rain soaks away and more goes down the drains.

Sewers are designed to handle this, though. There are overflow sections to handle storm surges, and it's ony when those get overwhelmed that the sea outflows get used to deal with the excess. Alas, what goes out the sea outflow tends to be the stuff that floats to the top...

Things used to be a LOT worse when the only overflow sections were the late victorian ones. In recent years a lot of coastal towns have added deep interceptor sewers. I got a look inside Brighton's just after it was built. 6 metres around and a few kilometres long. It'll be a good rainstorm that overwhelms that bastard, I reckon.

Anyway, tampons, towels and wetwipes are still a pain in the toches even if they make it all the way to the treatment plant without causing a Faecal Volcano in someone's garden/bathroom/favourite seafishing spot. All got to be screened out.

[cjdamoo]

I used to shudder at the mooncup mentions on the former Bad mothers club. Yet once I started using cloth on my kids and discovered making my own Nappies making my own sanpro was a natural progression. cannot begin to guess how much I have saved In nearly 3 years not to mention shorter Lighter periods.

[NatashaGurdin]

CharlotteCollins

I think they have been found to be responsible for blockages as really our sewers are not meant to cope with things like that and they don't break down like human waste or toilet paper.

I haven't had a child so I don't know about that side but I do have pets and it doesn't bother me putting their (bagged) waste in the bin for disposal. I put it in the wheely bin though I don't think it should sit in inside bins! (I know not everyone has wheely bins though).

[NatashaGurdin]

Pipbin

I rinse my pads if they are heavily stained but otherwise I don't bother and I just put them in with my general washing that is waiting to be done. I think some of them are not meant to be washed with softeners if they are made of certain materials because it affects the absorbency like with towels but I try to use minimal amounts of washing fluids anyway as I don't think modern washing machines need a lot and I have some of those balls that you throw in with the washing to help with the cleaning.

If you use them in addition to a menstrual cup you are unlikely to get heavy staining, I have very heavy periods because I have several large fibroids but the cup I use is adequate even for those because I deliberately chose a large capacity one.

It's hard to explain but until you have used them you really don't realise how little they smell either while in use or while waiting to be washed and I think a lot of this has been caused by the disposable sanpro industry who have told women for years that they smell bad when they have their period and want women to use fake perfumes to cover the smells when a heavy odour is usually only because there is something wrong like an infection that needs to be investigated and treated or (especially with disposable sanpro) if the woman is not changing often enough.