AIBU to be so naive - embarrassing question!!!!

[loveyouradvice]

Almost too embarrassed to ask... so simple, so ignorant....

Im a long-term Lillets user... occasionally I buy Tampax as desperate and nowt else to buy....

So much stuff... Lillets, everything flushes down the loo....

Tampax - nice little paper wrapper AND double tube thing.... At home, where do you put these? Presumably neither flush....

I've spent last 3 days, carefully wrapping in loo paper and putting in bathroom bin... feel a bit ridiculous... but they feel too revealing just lying there for all to see in the bin.....

Guessing Im missing something really obvious....

I thought the Golden Rule was, if it doesn't go through you it goes in the bin.

We live at the end of a Close. We're never effected, but neighbours further on are always having to have their drains rodded. And always it's female products, not theirs, but from other houses that for some reason congregate in their access cover.

I realise it's a badly designed drainage system, but that doesn't help our poor neighbours.

I'd assume the bins were for pads actually. And yes if no one talks about something how would you know? 🤔 Do you think posters are lying about not knowing? I assure you I didn't. When did you last discuss sanipro disposal with a mate?

Unless you have a very heavy period you won't need to empty a mooncup in a public toilet. I have never had to empty it in a toilet that doesn't have a sink in.

I only realised you shouldn't flush tampons a few years back.
I am not going to feel terrible and 'bad and ignorant' for believing something I had been told over and over and over.
I don't flush them now I know. If I did I could rightly be accused of being an idiot.

Same with 'flushable' wipes. I am not going slag off those who think they are flushable when they are advertised as such.

Education is key but society is so squeamish about periods and sanitary products I cant see how that would work.
Manufacturers need to put massive DO NOT FLUSH warnings on packaging.

Manufacturers need to put massive DO NOT FLUSH warnings on packaging.

They do! And so do public toilets walls! Do people not read?

My periods are fairly heavy and I'm out of the house for 12 hours a day so no good for me

I reckon I joined Mumsnet in 2003. I last flushed any sanpro in about 1990.

I was particularly affected by the fabulous campaign run by Surfers Against Sewage in Cornwall around then.

You only have to go to a beach to see disgusting things floating in the water to realise it's not going 'away'.

There have been massive education campaigns by the water companies for years.

I'm staggered that anyone still thinks it's OK to flush.

I've always had a small lidded bin in the bathroom, with a liner, so that any visitors can dispose of their gubbins in privacy.

Why not bag them and take them straight out to the outside bin?

I read a thing somewhere the other day recommending that people have an extra bin in their bathroom for recycling. It claimed that people don't recycle shampoo and other toiletry containers because they just put them on the bathroom bin. I was baffled. Whenever I get to the end of a shampoo or bleach bottle I just take it straight downstairs with me and put it in the recycling bin outside.

It claimed that people don't recycle shampoo and other toiletry containers because they just put them on the bathroom bin. I was baffled. Whenever I get to the end of a shampoo or bleach bottle I just take it straight downstairs with me and put it in the recycling bin outside.

I've always put those straight into my recycling box too.

because that would be a lot of bags!

Why not bag them and take them straight out to the outside bin?

Because on the first three days I would be out more than in 😂

I do however take all recyclables down straight away

Please don't flush.

Also, please don't flush any kind of wipe.

I have a pack of nappy bags in the loo. I put everything in a bag, put it in the bathroom bin and empty it each evening.

Probably a stupid question, but how are they ending up on the beach/in the sea?

If the water companies are constantly dealing with blockages caused by such things, what are they then doing with their findings??

I keep a recycling bin by the front door. Plastic swing bin. All recyclables go in there. Bin in bathroom with plastic bags in it. Kitchen swing bin.
Compostables go in compost bins. Tampons don't break down very well.

We'll as I wasn't a surfer in Cornwall in the nineties that must have passed me by.

*Oh come on, people can't use the excuse that 30 years ago we were told to flush. It's been around for bloody ages that you shouldn't.
I'm in my 40s and have never flushed a sanitary towel or a tampon. *

Good for you that you knew. I'm 30 and a couple of years before I started my periods my mum gave me a - seemingly - up to date book all about periods. The book explicitly said you could flush tampons. That was the advice I had to work with 20 years ago and nobody had ever told me otherwise until I read it on here a couple of years ago.

I read the leaflet the first time I used tampons but it never really occurred to me they might add something (like not to flush the tampons) at some later date so I didn't reread it after several years of using tampons just fine.

They do! And so do public toilets walls! Do people not read?

I can read and haven't noticed.
So they can't be that massive.

There are notices in public loos.
Maybe not in all of them though.

Sewage pipes are not smooth inside, where there are joins / junctions etc there are rough bits. Things like wipes and sanpro snag on these rough bits and collect more of the same and you end up with blocked pipes.

Cotton bud sticks are small enough to fit through the equipment at the treatment works and end up in the rivers and sea.

Sanpro etc ends up in the sea because either blockages or heavy rain causes sewers to overflow and waste bypasses the treatment works and goes straight into the rivers / sea.

Tampons can also pass through treatment works unscathed.

Some areas DO NOT have treatment works and RAW SEWAGE goes straight into the sea by design, not by accident.

If, like me, you have ever been swimming in the sea and realised a tampon is bobbing next to you, you would NEVER flush one again. That is far more disgusting than popping it in a bin!

Please look at surfers against sewage for more info, they are a fab group of people. (lots of whom have had to have hep a vaccinations just because they swim in the sea, no one can think that is ok - surely?!)

If you're at a friend's house you take a nappy sack as well as the new tampon or pad. Then you either put the filled nappy sack in the bin or in your handbag, depending.

In our house they are wrapped in a "nappysack" and then go into the bin. We wrap them up to reduce the chance of them smelling nasty.

Horrible story. Daughter's dog was out with us for a walk - he's a greedy bastid and will eat anything. I saw him chomping away on some bit of crap and hocked i out of his mouth - yes, you've guessed it! A USED tampon. ()

Some dirty cow must have gone into the park for a sh*g and dumped it. It was awful that the dog picked it up, but there are toddlers running about on that grass FFS!

Buy some paper sanitary bags from Amazon or eBay. No fuss. Just throw em in the bin, used tampon and all. NEVER FLUSH THEM! Blocked drains can cost homeowners a lot of money even if it's not their doing and the blockage is caused by others flushing them further up the street. If the blockage is under your house you usually have to pay.

I always flush tampon, tube everything, cant stand the thought of them in my bin - yuck!! Never had any probs with drains. I actually didn't even know you weren't supposed to flush them, what if u were at a friends house or something?

Me too...well, except the wrapper and applicator! I've never in my 27 years of life heard that you aren't meant to flush tampons...must be living under a rock I suppose