to refuse to stop putting nappies in this bin?

[spottymog]

My elder dd goes to dance lessons on a Saturday morning. They also hold baby ballet classes that morning, which begin at age 2 so obviously many of the class are still in nappies. There's a waiting room/cafe attached to the dance studio where parents and siblings wait.

A few weeks ago I changed my toddlers nappy and put it in the bin in the bathroom. The following week there was a sign above the bin saying: 'do not put nappies in this bin, take them home.' When I was leaving the bathroom a member of staff went in and approached me a couple of minutes later saying could I remove the nappy in the bin and take it home. I hadn't changed dd so said the nappy wasn't mine, she looked disbelieving so I asked the reason for the no nappy rule.

She said the bin is small so nappies get squashed and it isn't pleasant for staff to empty. I said surely the answer is to buy a bigger bin as many paying customers of theirs are nappy-wearers. She said the rules stands and walked off. Thee following week there was a more aggressive sign with capitals and underlining and to be honest, I feel like just ignoring it. We usually go out for the day straight from dancing and, particularly in the summer, it's not great to have a dirty nappy in the car. There are no other bins nearby and, like I said, I feel if your service caters for toddlers then you should also cater your facilities to them.

Aibu to ignore whatever sign she's dreamed up this week and use the bin anyway?

Really? Do most councils insist that you bag nappies separately to other normal household rubbish? Not anywhere I've ever seen! Ever!

So you shouldn't expect cafe staff to do their jobs, part of which is emptying bins? Really? Should you take your leftover scraps of food home too in case some delicate flower cafe staff should get a whiff of your waste and swoons at the stench? Emptying bins is a part of working in a cafe, sometimes the rubbish smells but the bins still have to be emptied, man up and get on with it!

It's not like the nappies are being left in a bin on the cafe floor in full smelling range of all the customers eating, it's in a toilet!

Bins are for waste, nappies are waste!

Extreme yes businesses are often charged srpetately for clinical waste
Its not part of the role of working in a cafe to have to empty bins full of nappies

Oh and I don't have an outside bin to put my ds' dirty nappies in so they have to sit in a bin bag inside my flat until bin collection day or the bag ends up getting ripped open and dirty nappies spread all over the pavement. At least cafe staff can empty the bin daily and put it outside in a big bin ready for collection. People need to stop being so pathetic!

An yes SDGT that sounds great, more people should have those :D

Nappies are classed by the HSE as clinical waste (www.hse.gov.uk/pubns/waste22.pdf) and therefore strictly should not be disposed of in normal household bins.

To be fair, extremepie I have never been served shit in a nappy in a cafe. I have been served food. Therefore I fully expect to the cafe staff to deal with food but not shit.

Do you understand?

Yes it is if they allow children! It's part of your job to empty bins, what they contain is irrelevant. I've done it, don't see what the problem is! No business I've ever worked in (catering) has expected the staff to sift through the rubbish, pick out the dirty nappies and dispose of them separately.

People emptying wheelie bins only touch the outside of the bin. If any sticks and doesn't fall in, it's not the bin man's problem.

I don't know the process for outdoor bins as they are fixed with a removable inner, but the worker will almost certainly have to get closer to touching the waste.

HTH.

So you would never expect cafe staff to have to clean a toilet occasionally? Even the staff ones?

Beet how are you expected to dispose of them at home then?

Bert

Flush the poo down the toilet and let the sewage works deal with it.

What about the rest of it that is stuck to the nappy? Unless you can somehow scrape it spotlessly clean? What about when it's too runny/squashed in to be scraped off?

Them technically you are breaking the law.......

Then

Really? Well then maybe someone in law enforcement could come and inform me of that because I've never heard of that ever anywhere I have ever lived! So you can't dispose of them at home or anywhere else apparently, good to know!

A branch of a local well known children's shop has changing facilities and they have just taken away their nappy bin with a sign that disposal was costing them £14000 per year and no longer viable. Not sure how true that figure is but you can see how a dance centre wouldn't be keen to provide this.

" it's not great to have a dirty nappy in the car."

Not nice having it sat in a bin for everyone using the centre either.
Nor for the staff who need to empty the bins.

Double bag and take home to dispose.

It is not an unusual or uncommon rule ime - and DD is 12y now, so this kind of rule has been in place for a fair few years.

Suppose the alternative is that the centre could just say that they will only take children once they are potty trained and out of nappies. The class DD went to when she was 2y did just that.

I don't see that it's up to the OP to decide just how much money the owner is making from her business. Just because she may be making ) £150 from a class of 25 does not mean that she is earning thousands and can necessarily afford to pay for a clinical waste bin. Businesses have overheads, and I am sure she wouldn't want to share her profit margins with you - they're probably minimal!

A bin full of wet disposables stinks. Especially in hot weather. If all 25 mothers on a Saturday morning changed their child before leaving, that bin would be full and drink for the rest of the day, until it could be emptied. I would not be happy if I was a parent watching a dance class needing to use the stinky toilet where that bin was.

The owner has made the decision that parents should take them home. It's fair enough. Take them home!

Actually Bert just looked it up and sanpro (which includes nappies) is considered non hazardous and can be disposed of with normal household waste, unless there is a medical diagnosis that would make it hazardous :)

Welcome to MN Fatmanbuttsam.

I run children's drama classes & if a parent did that on me I'd have to ask them to stop or their child to leave as the primary school I hire would ask me to leave if I left pooey nappies in their open waste paper bins in the toilet.

Yes it is a clinical waste BUT for it to costs £14000 a year, you need A LOT of bins to empty. I doubt that our local swimming pool pays that much each year for example. And each toddler/baby that has gone in the pool will have been changed twice (nappy plus swim nappy).

Now seriously most businesses manage that and manage a sanitary bin so why can't that dance school/cafe can't do it?
Eg all primary school have some toilet with sanpro bins. All swimming pools, a lot of cafés and restaurants do. It doesn't cost the earth. So why not them?

A children's centre I used to attend used to ask parents to to take their nappies home with them. They did it to avoid paying £28 per week for clinical waste disposal. The outcome: several parents hanging nappy a packs full of pooey nappies off the handles of the buggies. The smell from even one or two of the, was absolutely awful so I stopped going there in the end as, in a small space it was disgusting.

I'd suggest that you call your local environmental health department and see what they feel would be best practice. All they need to do is to have a separate bin labelled as being for nappies. They should also have sanitary bins. Surely that's a legal requirement?
I know I would prefer a proper bin being provided to dirty nappies being brought into a dance class!

Oh, and to those of you suggesting that a child be changed before the class-good idea, BUT, please do tell me how you manage to programme your child not to do a poo at a certain time?!