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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

to think it would be common courtesy and common sense to that? possibly tmi.

436 replies

someonestolemynick · 06/04/2016 19:24

To put a bin next to the toilet.

This makes me irrationally angry: My job involves going to people's houses. Normally I will be with them between a and 4 hours, so occasionally I will have to use their toilet.
Today I'm on my period and have quite heavy flow. I was on a longer job (3hrs) and bled through my tampon. I discovered that there was no von in the bathroom. Just to be clear. I try to avoid having to change my tampon in client's houses by changing in public loos, McDonald's or Starbucks and carry scented plastic bags with me tobwrap the offender in when I have to do it at someone's house.
So, anyway, i was in the very awkward position of having a soaked tampon and no way of getting rid of it. I was in charge of a very young child - so no way of nipping out to the bins or a pub (to use the loo) and ended up stemming the flow with toilet paper and going back to working with their dc for another hour.
I will not flush a tampon down the loo because I don't want to block the clients toilet.

So, aibu to ask you all to provide a bin for female visitors?

OP posts:
Shesinfashion · 06/04/2016 22:25

I've flushed tampons down the loo ever since I began using them at 13. To my knowledge I have never blocked anyone's drains up with them.

witsender · 06/04/2016 22:25

"Locate a bin?" Surely there is always a bin in the kitchen?

Pipbin · 06/04/2016 22:26

Ive also never seen a job lot of tampons on beaches. Why people tend to exaggerate on here is probably because they can.

In 2010, a UK beach clean found an average of 23 sanitary pads and 9 tampon applicators per kilometre of British coastline. Non-organic sanitary products are made from cotton that was sprayed with chemical pesticides, which destroy biodiversity and cause potentially lethal pesticide poisoning in cotton workers.

Source: www.wen.org.uk/environmenstrual/

But it's OK because you've never seen it. I've never seen New York, the Queen or a tornado but I've been told they all exist, or does something only exist if I've actually seen it?

Mablethorpe · 06/04/2016 22:28

I can't believe people still think it's ok to flush tampons.

I use biodegradable nappy sacks and wrap and bin all that sort of waste.

ifyoulikepinacolada · 06/04/2016 22:29

This thread is mental! I think it's polite to have a small lidded bin with a bin liner in it in each toilet in the home, and I can't see what's disgusting about leaving a wrapped up tampon in one either?! Zoe, your level of rage is utterly baffling - whatever happened to make you so repulsed by the female body, I am so, so sorry.

ExtraHotLatteToGo · 06/04/2016 22:31

I agree that if men had periods tampons would be flushable by now. There's a huge difference between flushable and something that would fall apart inside you. I think the processing plants should be designed to handle flushed tampons..

I don't have a bathroom bin (no space for one, & don't need one), but you'd be welcome to put whatever you liked (wrapped) in the kitchen bin that's emptied daily.

If I had a bathroom bin I guess I'd be ok with bagged tampons being put in there, but it would be a bit minging as it wouldn't get emptied often so used tampons would sit in there for god knows how long. Bleurgh. My eldest god daughter (20) stays a lot. I know she doesn't flush, I've never noticed her disposing of her tampons in the kitchen bin, but she must. If she felt it was difficult or embarrassing she'd definitely tell me 😁

We have a separate toilet in the house where I grew up, no room for a bin (basin is in the bathroom next door). Stupid set up & still like that! It wasn't/isn't a problem to wrap, them and put them in the kitchen bin. It's not as if they're huge or have flashing lights attached to them 😁

Pipbin · 06/04/2016 22:38

I agree that if men had periods tampons would be flushable by now.

I have to say that I hate this argument.
Why are we sitting around and waiting for men to do it? Do people think that there are only men that are inventing and designing stuff. What message is this to send to our daughters? 'Oh yes this doesn't work properly but we won't fix it, we'll sit and wait for one of those clever men to do it for us'.

wavingnow · 06/04/2016 22:44

Far too personal a thing to leave in someone's bin it's not a public toilet. I'd carry various small bags with me when necessary and take it home or to a public toilet along my journey.

MattDillonsPants · 06/04/2016 22:54

To be frank, while I feel for you, I would be horrified to find someone else's bio hazard in my loo!

I have a dog who unfortunately goes into the bathroom bin as soon as he can and gets everything out. While it's awful for you I think you should put used tampons in one of your scented bags and double them up to dispose of when you're out of the house.

RudeElf · 06/04/2016 22:55

Far too personal a thing to leave in someone's bin it's not a public toilet

But its ok for a stranger to have to deal with your "personal" waste? Why is that?

zoelife111 · 06/04/2016 23:05

Zoe, your level of rage is utterly baffling - whatever happened to make you so repulsed by the female body, I am so, so sorry.

I have studied pathology, ifyoulikepinacolada, that's what "happened"

zoelife111 · 06/04/2016 23:06

But its ok for a stranger to have to deal with your "personal" waste? Why is that?

Rudeelf, hygiene bins in public toilets are emptied by employees appropriately trained, appropriately dressed, and at appropriately timed intervals.

AnyFucker · 06/04/2016 23:09

it's the numbers after the name

always a dead giveaway

zoelife111 · 06/04/2016 23:10

Zoe HOW do you know someone has never put a tampon in your bin?? HOW?? And What do you do with your sanitary towels/tampons?

we don't have a bin in the bathroom, and anyway, guests would normally ask how to dispose of such things as soiled nappies and tampons

HPsauciness · 06/04/2016 23:11

Sanitary product bins in public places are separate to ordinary bins precisely because they are not the same type of hazard! The company then comes in, with gloves on, and takes them away to empty and clean. It's still not the best job in the world.

I just don't believe, having read the housework threads on here, that every MNetter advocating bins and leaving your used tampons in other people's houses, really cleans their bins out daily or after every visitor. I also think using daily bin liners in case of such an eventuality is a bit of an environmental waste, better to wrap the one tampon you have in one bag/liner and dispose of later.

I have lots of female friends and stayed over with them and vice versa for more than 20 years, never ever have any of my friends left used sanitary products in my ordinary bin in the bathroom or have I in theirs. In my house, the bin is tiny and I would notice if they had (as I only put loo rolls/cotton buds in there). I notice when my dds do. Either me and my friends are all weird about this or actually this isn't the norm at all.

RudeElf · 06/04/2016 23:13

Rude elf, hygiene bins in public toilets are emptied by employees appropriately trained, appropriately dressed, and at appropriately timed intervals.

And?? Youre still leaving your personal waste for them to deal with.

Pipbin · 06/04/2016 23:14

You're not wrong there AF

Primaryteach87 · 06/04/2016 23:15

I'm really surprised by the number of women who are too embarrassed to put a tampon in a bathroom bin or too disgusted to have someone else do this in their house Confused It's really not anything to be disgusted or embarrassed by.

We have a lidded bathroom bin. I both use it (and similar in others houses) and expect guests to do they same. Frankly, I'd be horrified if someone was too ashamed to put a tampon in my bin. I'd come over all feminist and give them a good talking to, if I found this out irl.

StuffandBother · 06/04/2016 23:34

I think I'd eat it before I'd put a used tampon in someone else's bin! I need to give my head a wobble don't I Blush

SunsetSinger · 06/04/2016 23:45

Zoe can't answer what he does with his sanitary products because Zoe is a man and has never had to deal with it. Only a man would imagine that public toilet bins are emptied at 'appropriate intervals'. FYI Zoe they are emptied much less frequently than a bathroom bin and they generally smell because of that.

Zoe is a misogynist man who gets a kick out of coming on here and trying to make women feel ashamed of their bodies. Well, it's not working, sorry! Smile

Ladies, you are welcome to use my bin anytime!

musicposy · 06/04/2016 23:46

Surely a bathroom bin has a liner in it and therefore you don't know what's in it?
All these people who would be disgusted our outraged if someone put a used tampon in your bin - how would you know?

I have two teenage girls plus all their friends come to the house and I also teach from home. A sizeable portion of my pupils are teens. I couldn't bear anyone to feel embarrassed so I always leave a sizeable stack of sanpro in the bathroom (enough that anyone could take one without feeling they had to ask or it would be noticed) and a lined bin by the toilet. The bin liner has a drawstring so I just knot that and change it regularly, no need to examine the contents! I honestly could not tell you if visitors have ever used it or not, and that's how it should be, I think.

LogicalThinking · 06/04/2016 23:48

So should EVERY household have a bathroom bin just in case a female visitor needs to use it? Older relatives, single men (not dating), gay men etc. Even if female visitors are a rare occurrence?
I had to remove a couple of bins when my kids were toddlers as they kept tipping them out all over the floor - there is no way I could have had a bathroom bin at that time!

RudeElf · 06/04/2016 23:49

I can tell you now, as the person who does the bins in my work, they arent all appropriately trained, appropriately dressed and emptying them at appropriate intervals. Some of them are your colleagues who you will sit across from while you eat your lunch after they've disposed of your personal waste long after you've put it from your mind.

duckyneedsaclean · 06/04/2016 23:54

Sorry, but tampax are flushable.

Pipbin · 06/04/2016 23:54

I guess smaller work places don't have the ones that are bought in and serviced do they.