to ask...where do you put your used tampons at home?

[YellowCat3]

Okay, I'll fess up...for years I've flushed them [blush. I've never thought too much about the enivronmental impact as I thought it was the same as loo roll, but have recently become aware that I definitely need to stop.

But I don't like the thought of them lingering around the house. We don't have a bin in the bathroom as it seems disgusting somehow, and our only bin is in the kitchen. It seems beyond skanky to put soiled tampons in there. I just wondered what other women do - do you put them straight in the bins outside, or are you happy to have bloody tampons in the bins inside for days? Not sure if I am being OCD about this (probably), but feel puzzled as to the best way to dispose of them?

You need to get a bathroom bin! I empty ours every couple of days. Tampons wrapped in tissue. Or get a Mooncup

If you don't have a bin in the bathroom, what do you do with used dental floss

or cotton wool buds?

Please don't tell me you flush everything.

"A few years ago, I bought and tried a mooncup and both times I tried it, it got sucked up and suctioned itself very high up near my cervix!"

Erm, they're supposed to suction over your cervix!
Oh, unless you meant it suctioned to your vagina wall??

I display mine in the china cabinet in the lounge next to family photos.

... Just wrap in tissue and put them in the bin. Bathroom bin, kitchen bin, bedroom bin, in fact any bin other than recycling. Unless you don't empty your bin for days on end it's no worse than any other organic rubbish hanging around.

I don't understand how you could possibly have a bathroom with no bin.

And I haven't got a bathroom bin either, manage on a daily basis to transport rubbish from the bathroom to the kitchen without dropping it all over the place.

In this house cotton buds, dental floss etc all go in the kitchen bin. I use cotton wool pads for taking my makeup off in the bedroom and they go in a bag and then into the outside bin (when we've decorated I'll have a bin in the bedroom but it's not worth it at the moment)

I switched to washable pads. They go into a wet bag and then washed at the end of my period.

I switched after having 2 DC in cloth nappies. I'm a great deal less squeamish these days! 😄

"we didnt flush in the early 1980s. how are people only now figuring this out?"

aah! I distinctly remember the tampon lady coming to the school and saying that it was perfectly fine to flush tampons down the loo. Not the applicator (that would just bob merrily in the toilet bowl) but the rest of it, no worries! So I did... for years.

Wasn't till I read about fatbergs that I realised. So wrapped in bog roll and into very small lidded lined bathroom bin. Empty frequently.

Actually I now use a menstrual cup - it's been a life-changer.

Please don't wrap individually in plastic to be wrapped again in a kitchen/bin liner. It's only your own blood.

Back up. No toilet brush? What happens if you have a skidder?

I have a bathroom bin. It had a lid. I drop them straight in, don't wrap in toilet roll, bin is lined. Rarely have visitors else I probably would, just DH and I usually. I've recently swapped back to a mooncup.

I don’t put the cardboard bit out of the loo roll or shampoo bottles in the bathroom bin. Recycling tends to sit on the window sill until someone (usually me) takes it downstairs. I’m not rummaging through the bathroom bin fishing out recycling.

Not having a bathroom bin is really weird. Used dental floss? Loo roll inners? Shampoo bottles? Used tampons/sanitary towels?

Cardboard tubes (and other cardboard packaging), shampoo bottles etc go straight in the recycling. Dental floss goes in the bin.

Used sanpro is a long distant memory for me, but it was always wrapped in tissue and put in the (lidded) bathroom bin.

faw2009 I can remember the tampon lady telling us that!

It might only be my own blood but I hate it! Obviously I get in with it but the thought of using pads makes me feel sick so tampons are the lesser of the evils.

Small lidded bathroom bin that gets emptied every couple of days if on period.

Like most people!

I use biodegradable 100% cotton ones. From boots smile no more expensive than some branded sanitary products IMO either

The question wasn’t ‘what do you use’ it was ‘how do you dispose of them’.

Lots of people don't have bathroom bins. When I didn't have one I just used to take things to my bedroom bin or to the recycling.

Not having a bathroom bin isn't the end of the world, although you wouldn't think it by some of the comments...

In the compost bin (if plastic free): www.natracare.com/blog/can-you-compost-menstrual-products/

I flush and I'm not changing either .

None of them are flushable, not even 'biodegradable' ones, so don't flush them. No wipes are flushable either, even if they say they are.

I paid £540 earlier this year to get the sewers unclogged as I am down a bit from the linked houses up the street and everything was stopping at my house. The guy said it was fat, wipes and sanitary ware that caused it.

When I used any sanitary ware I wrapped in a bit of loo roll and put in the bathroom bin, which got emptied regularly into the outside bin.

Just get a bathroom bin, a pedal one with a lid, and put them in there. I empty the bathroom bin when it's full... It doesn't smell.
I wrap mine in tissue too.

I'm quite shocked that people haven't known not to flush tampons. The only thing you should ever flush is tissue. Everything else - sanitary towels, wipes, nappies, all need to go in the bin.

I've actually always wondered why not everyone has a bathroom bin! If I've ever gone to a friends house and they don't have one I've had to awkwardly wrap it in tissue and put it in my bag, hand or pocket and quickly dash to the nearest bin!

Goodness, I'm shocked at the amount of plastic wrapping/bags some of you are using.

Why can't you wrap tampon in toilet roll, put in bathroom bin. Empty bathroom bin into kitchen bin on the same day said kitchen bin is going outside to be taken away by bin men. No need for lots of different bin bags/liners. One should do the lot.

We're clearly, and sadly a long way from a plastic free world.

Two bins in our bathroom. Both small so emptied frequently. The larger is for recyclables which is mainly loo roll inners - since switching to soap and sold shampoo, far fewer bottles.

The environment is by far more important than personal distaste towards a bin in the bathroom. I have one and you don't smell it. I do put an old shopping bag in there though because it needs a liner.

And you don't smell anything unless you leave it in there for too long.

However saying that i have now switched to a menstrual cup so reduce my bed for tampons.

But with cups you need to boil them every now and again. But meh I'm not bothered. Period blood isn't dirty. You aren't going to make yourself or anyone else sick, unless you know you have an infection.

People are far too paranoid about germs and contamination. Just keep things generally clean. I work in operating theatres, we just clean things with disinfectant wipes, stronger stuff only if there is infection.

Germs aren't going to come crawling out of the bin and up your leg. But tampons will get stuck in pipes, cause blockages or end up floating around in the ocean being eaten by dolphins or whatever.

Easier to use menstruel cups. Google the website putacupinit and find out which one is for you.[biscuit

We're clearly, and sadly a long way from a plastic free world

Yup. And when magazines/catalogues etc stop coming in plastic I’ll stop using those.

I don’t actually buy bin bags - I must accumulate 3/4 charity bags a week. Drives me potty.