To wonder these bags are

[WhitePhantom]

OK, I have to make a confession first. Up until recently I always flushed tampons - I had never really thought about it and nobody had ever told me I shouldn't. It just seemed such an obvious thing to do. Then I discovered on mn that I shouldn't. That I should bag it and bin it instead.

So I started to look for bags for this purpose, but I can't find them. I'm using nappy bags, sandwich bags, small freezer bags, or whatever.

Are there not bags made specifically for this purpose, that are sold alongside all the rest of the women's sanitary products??

Google 'fatbergs'. The problem with flushing tampons isn't necessarily that they get stuck in your toilet system, it's that over time, these clog the pipe network which accumulated fat and oil.

In addition to this, treatment plants generally struggle to deal with this type of waste.

99% of things advertised as flushable, aren't (and biodegradable is also a questionable claim). If it's not a bodily excretion or loo paper, please don't flush! Treatment plants are a lot more vulnerable than most people are aware of!

We discovered NDN had been flushing nappies when the sewer overflowed.

I used to flush tampons, now I use a mooncup. DD has not started using tampons yet, but I'll be teaching her to wrap and bin it. Will get her a mooncup once she's mastered the tampons though.

How do you clean a mooncup in a work environment when the sink is outside the toilet stall? I don't get it!

The problem is that although most sewage works will screen out large items ( this includes tampons) most systems are combined so when you have a storm a lot of unscreened sewage can be discharged ( some storm may be screened but not to such a fine degree so tampons/pads will be discharged)

Cotton buds are also a nightmare, they can get through most screens

I live in an end of terrace Victorian house with plumbing of similar age. I now tell new neighbours about the drains and that if they put nappies, pads or tampons down the toilet and it blocks I will 1, give them the bill for sorting it out and 2, tell the plumber to dump the waste in their front garden.

Manufacturers should really include little purpose made bags in the tampon packets. It'd be more hygienic than wrapping it in loo roll and would make the people who don't know not to flush them question why they come with mini bags.

I've been having periods for 35 years and no-one has ever told me not to flush tampons. I was told (by my mother presumably) to put the cardboard applicator in the bin and flush the tampons down the toilet. I'm sure that the tampax packaging back then said that they were flushable as well.

In public places, I have always used the sanitary bins provided on the understanding that the plumbing in public places couldn't support tampons from potentially large numbers of women.

I will definitely change my ways and will educate my teenage daughter who is also mistakenly flushing her tampons on my advice. I know that there is a lot of shock on this thread from people but, if no one tells you otherwise, there will be a lot of women who are flushing tampons through ignorance of the effect that it is having.

Fluffyears-
Simple, you take a bottle of water in with you. I just go to the toilet, take the cup out, pour some water over it, reinsert it, pour some water on my hands and then flush, go outside the cubicle and wash my hands like normal.
I'm a recent convert

How do you clean a mooncup in a work environment when the sink is outside the toilet stall? I don't get it!
Tip the contents down the loo and wipe with paper. In an ideal world you rinse with water but a wipe with paper will do the job. Chances are you will only need to empty it once or twice in a work day so when you get home you can rinse it.

I can get away with a only having to empty my moon cup twice a day, even on my heaviest days so I don't have to empty at work

Sainsburys have some specifically for that, they're smaller than nappy bags, but essentially the same thing, around 50 for a pound, but myself and DD prefer to use nappy bags, they come cheaper from own brands, and usually in larger boxes. For our recent holiday I bought two boxes (we had three bathrooms) and just stuffed a load in three bags and hung them on the loo roll holder, you only use them once a month but they should last quite long, and they stop smells. of course you can use loo roll, or some paper bags (like hotels) if you can find them, but DD and i find this easiest. the bags also hide the contents slightly so it's harder to tell what they are if a visitor happens to open the bin.

Surely those who say they are still flushing tampons down their loo are winding us up? Seriously who wants to pay a plumber to unblock their loo? (and find those tampons, how embarrassing!)

I'm afraid I had no idea you shouldn't flush tampons either until reading this. We share a waste tank with the pub and they have major problems with people flushing baby wipes but I hadn't heard of this, so I've learned something today.

Off topic but I only found out recently how awful those little microbeads in facewashes etc are - no more Soap and Glory facewash for me either.

www.canyoudothat.com/can-you-flush-tampons-down-the-toilet/

I use sanitary towels and if I'm at home I wrap them in the wrapper of the next sanitary towel then put them into our main bin (which is emptied daily). In public, I'll use the sanitary bin if there is one otherwise wrap it in the next towel's wrapper and then wrap that in plenty of toilet paper. I would presume the same would work for tampons.

To the OP, hotels usually have "sanitary bags" for disposing of tampons and sanitary towels in hotel rooms (I use those if I'm in a hotel), but I've never seen them on sale, but presume a nappy bag does the same job.

Prosecco. Save me the googling & tell me why they're bad - please :)

Well this is an eye opener. I've always flushed tampons and pads. The only time I haven't is after giving birth and I put the big maternity towels in the bin in nappy bags. I didn't realise you weren't meant to.

I have three loos. We manage to keep bags in each. Mainly for guests, dds (20) use washable products.

Cafe micro beads are made of plastic, they don't get filtered and are dumped in the sea where fish eat them. They are terrible for the environment.
I use a salt or sugar scrub as an exfoliator instead.

Yup, terrible for fish and environment, fish eat them and I don't think they ever break down.

I have had a septic tank for so long it is second nature to pop tampons/towels in a bag.
I just have a discreet word with visitors about what can be flushed down the loo.
Never had a problem.

I heard somewhere that EU regulation is looking to make the plastic microbeads illegal? I do love scrub products but felt too guilty using them when I heard about sealife eating the plastic so switched to salt/sugar products instead.

I haven't used scrubs in years.

I use this instead
www.muji.eu/pages/online.asp?Sec=17&Sub=72&PID=7742

Body shop have similar.