To say "please don't flush tampons"?

[JugsAndSoap]

Today I have had to tell two friends that they can't flush tampons down the toilet. (In my case the subject came about because we have a septic tank, but two fully grown adults had no idea that they shouldn't flush them anyway).
AIBU to have thought that "everyone" knew that? I assumed it was common knowledge but maybe not as common as I thought...

They don't though

Blimey, after 37 years no one ever told me not to flush em. Who knew?

Some wipes might say flushable but I've not seen it say that on sanitary products since I was a child

No problem in my house, due to the wisdom of MN I found out about the moon cup and have been using it ever since! Fucking brilliant bit of kit, I have recommended to every woman I know!

@grassisntgreener I genuinely was thinking "oh no, do the otters eat used tampons and get ill??" In all seriousness I had no idea you weren't meant to flush them and am usually very environmentally savvy😳 Will stop from now on. Although having been considering switching to menstrual cup anyway x

tbh there is absolutely no difference between a tampon and toilet roll and a big old fat 💩

Look up fat bergs

I remember advice in schools in 80s was to flush tampons and pictures of sanitary towels being ripped in half. My mum told me to bin instead, but she had spent time in Germany and was always recycling/environmentally aware so I wonder if there was different advice in other countries.

Possibly many young women today were told by their mothers etc that they could flush them

Yep, I didn’t realise growing up that you shouldn’t because my mum always did (and doesn’t have bins in her bathrooms). I didn’t realise you shouldn’t until a few years ago.

oops...

Won't be doing that again! My Dad used to moan about this to my sister and I when we were teens and we used to joke about him being the tampon police but he's incredibly uptight about everything and we just thought it was another one of his quirks!

I shall text her now just in case

I didn’t know until a few weeks back reading a thread on here. Oddly I was one of a tiny few on that thread, but the majority here admit they didn’t know til recent

My mum always told me to flush them and so I did!

I use a moon cup now though. I can't stand the thought of dirty sanitary products in the bathroom bin 🤢

I’ve always thought it strange when people don’t have a bin in the bathroom. We all have septic tanks where we live here in the USA and when my mum came to visit age saw the bin in the bathroom and thought that everything went into that because of the septic tank. Reassured her that it was ok to flush toilet paper.

Lilets and Superdrug definitely say not to flush. If there are indeed still brands on sale in the UK saying you should flush then please name and shame.

Most tampons are flushable, tbh there is absolutely no difference between a tampon and toilet roll and a big old fat 💩

Ok, get 3 jugs of water. Put a shit in one, toilet roll in the other and Tampax in the last. Leave it over night, give it a good stir then come back and tell us if there is any difference.

I can't believe people still flush this stuff pee, poo, puke and toilet paper is the only things that go down the bog.

I've always flushed them and am not planning to change my ways now - sorry!

Well it's not going to be great when you are standing watching a man from dynorod, fishing your tampons the rest of the blockage out of your pipes in the street or your garden 🤷

I can believe it. A lot of us learnt about tampons in a time where we were taught to flush it down. Once you know how to use a tampon you’re unlikely to read the instructions again. I never.

TwistedBiscuit I had no idea they actually advised that. Wonder which bright spark thought that one up lol?

It's on the box, no need to read the instructions

HaudYerWheeshtYaWeeBellend, unwrapped tampons have a film over them that doesn't disintegrate so the tampon just swells. They cause blockages. I doubt that the inner bit is paper.
Flushable means if you put them in the loo they will go away, it doesn't mean that you should flush them

i'm in my mid 40s and was taught by my mother to rip sanitary towels and flush them down the loo. No bins in the bathroom when we were growing up. They still don't have a bin in the bathroom.

However, I know enough about water to realise that if you flush tampons or towels, some other poor bugger has to fish them out at some point. So it''s much easier just to wrap it it tissue and put it in the bin.

There's no excuse for flushing them.

Most tampons are flushable, tbh there is absolutely no difference between a tampon and toilet roll and a big old fat 💩

That is so incorrect. For a start most tampons are not actually biodegradable.

metro.co.uk/2016/07/12/this-why-you-definitely-should-stop-flushing-tampons-down-the-loo-6002318/