To flush tampons down the toilet?

[CluedoCat]

Until very recently, I thought most women did this, and I didn't see it as much different to throwing a wad of loo roll down there. I know the box says you shouldn't, but I thought this way something said but never adhered to. However, I have recently learned it's really bad for the sweage system to do this, and the advice is to put used tampons in the bin?

The thought of putting bloodied tampons in the bin and keeping them in the house is gross to me - I'd rather just thrush it away and that's that. One of the many reasons I don't use towels is because the thought of them festering is disgusting to me.

AIBU to continue doing this, and am I apparently the only woman who does? I've never blocked the toilet or experienced any issues.

I knew it since 14😳

I don't understand why more people are not using mooncups?

Not only are the environmentally friendly, they are comfy, cheap and they hold way more.

How can you not know that you shouldn't flush tampons??! Is this not common knowledge?

I can't use a mooncup they are uncomfortable I've tried. I can feel them all the time and they nip and just feel awful.

It’s been 25 years since I flushed a tampon down the toilet. This is not new....

Also, why are people putting them in individual PLASTIC bags?? Wrap them in a bit of loo roll and put them outside with general waste once a day!

You know, I was never told not to flush them. My mum didn't use them, I just bought myself some as a teen and went from there. My friends and I didn't discuss stuff like that until much older. I think I must have been late 20's before I was told not to flush them. It's not fair to blame people who simply haven't been told, in fact the convenience originally for me was being able to get rid discreetly down a toilet. I don't feel good about it, as I say I don't even use them now and haven't flushed in 10+ years and wouldn't dream of it now.

Isthereeveranexcuse
But it isn't just seven bags a month is it? You have forgotten about all the other tampon users and now all of a sudden it is millions of bags a month but that's ok because you do your bit and only use 7 bags a month, hypocritical and another nimby

I am happy with tampons and don't fancy a Mooncup in the slightest.

My rubbish bin is emptied fortnightly like most people. I do not want anything going on there unwrapped the might encourage flies (not such an issue now but it was in the summer). Even the washed cat food pouches have to be wrapped to prevent maggots and flies.

I’m now looking into biodegradable tampons and bags for disposal as I know nappy sacks are just creating another problem.

Oh no, please stop doing this. Just think of the environment, they are going to fester somewhere, that place should be rotting in landfill with all the other solid non-recyclable waste. Not cluttering up sewers and waterways.

How do people not know about this in this day and age? I've literally always known not to flush sanitary products and I started menstruating in 1994! What do they think that little bin in public toilets is all about?

I was taught at school to flush tampons, and by my mother to rip sanitary towels in half and flush them - I can't believe that now. I stopped doing the sanitary towel thing pretty quickly I think (and had to sneak them out to the outside bin), but the tampon thing I only learned about on mumsnet. I have a vivid memory of going to stay at my auntie's caravan and my mother - embarrassed - telling me I wouldn't be able to flush my sanitary towels in that particular circumstance. To my shame I also thought baby wipes were flushable until a particularly memorable New Years Day with DH rodding the drains and the dawning realisation of the damage.

FWIW my husband is a plumber, I've just asked him and he says he has never seen someone's used tampon in a toilet or drain - I think he's had a lucky escape. And as a plumber he didn't know about the wet wipes either, we were both obliviously flushing them.

Calling people thick, hypocritical, a nimby etc really doesn’t help. To those posters saying it’s on the packaging, I can’t remember the last time I looked at the packaging on a tampon box other than to check it’s the right one.

why isn't this common knowledge?

I don't know. Perhaps they could write it on signs in every public loo, anywhere that has a septic tank and on all the boxes tampons come in. Oh, wait, they already do.

A tampon is a plug. Literally. it doesn't take much thought to realise the consequences of putting a plug in a drain. The verb "tamp" means to pack out a hole.

The skip photo is taken at a sewage treatment works - its just 4 hours worth of 'rag' in a smallish town ( 'rag' is the name they give in the water sector to all the stuff that gets put down toilets that shouldn't be there like wet wipes, sanitary products etc). At this treatment works they try and remove it with filters but sometimes it causes blockages which cause pollution - ie sewage - to enter our rivers. At some smaller treatment works they don't have filters, its just gets mashed up into tiny pieces and discharged into rivers with the treated waste water (and all those bits of plastic tampons etc end up in the sea eventually). The only things that should go down toilets, sinks and drains are the 3 Ps - POO, PEE and toilet PAPER - not tissues, not wipes of any kind as they are not designed to disintegrate like toilet paper. Ignore the fact that they are wrongly labelled at 'flushable'!! The jar photo shows what happens with tissue and what happens with toilet paper when they are shaken in water - ie the tissue stays whole and the toilet paper disintegrates. I don't get out much...

Put them in the bin and then take the bin out.

Ugh - don't flush them, that is grim. I usually wear a panty liner with a tampon so wrap it in the wrapper for that before using loo paper

No do not flush them. Have you not seen programmes on tv where they show how blocked up the sewer gets. Showing so much crap in the sewers such as nappies, pads, condoms etc. Don’t be selfish. Ok it’s hasnt blocked your toilet, but it all contributes further down the line. People actually have to clean these sewers by hands....literally using a shovel. It’s disgusting what people flush down the toilet. Don’t do it!!

It’s because waste water sewerage systems are designed to flood out when blocked, as it prevents the possible back flooding into people’s property via the toilet. Your tampons end up in the sea.
Gross. Stop flushing them.
This includes wipes that are marketed as flushable, they aren’t.

Calling people thick, hypocritical, a nimby etc really doesn’t help.

What exactly would help?

These are people too stupid to read what's right in front of them - not only on tampon boxes, but on the doors of public toilets, in the bathrooms in hotels, in ordinary media. They're people who've never noticed all the stories about fatbergs and pollution and environmental impact. They're people who can't be bothered to consider why everyone else doesn't do this.

Clearly, public information campaigns haven't worked. Getting the message out so exhaustively that most people could write it themselves, hasn't worked.

So, I think the only thing that can be done is to make these people realise they're being disgusting and selfish, and not to mince words about it.

That's interesting Smashtheglass18, I never thought tissues were any different to toilet paper and have been known to flush them...

I agree with some of the others though, there seems to be much incredulity and judgement about flushing tampons by people who are saying they put tampons into nappy bags, which although doesn't block drains, does still impact the environment adversely by going into landfill...

I flushed tampons occasionally as a teenager until I lived in a house with a septic tank.

YABU. 'I find it gross' is a childish and lame excuse. Lots of things in bins tend to be gross. Empty your bins regularly and nothing will 'fester'.

I grew up beside a beach. You would not flush them if you’d had the same experience! Thankfully sewage systems are way better now but it’s still a NO!

@ChocBix because they don't suit everyone. I have big boobs, short arms and a long torso. I can't reach to use one.

I wouldn’t put them in a bathroom bin, there’s be too great a concentration of them in there for me to be comfortable with. I don’t empty our little bins that often. I wrap tampons in loo paper, take them to the kitchen bin. That gets emptied to outside 2/3 times a week, so there’s really no ‘festering’ to worry about.