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Ethical living

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Original poster

If you don't flush your tampons down the loo, how do you dispose of them?

66 replies

DumbledoresGirl · 02/10/2008 10:49

OK right away, I know I am in ethical living and you are all going to shout MOONCUPS!!! at me, but I am not going down that route, ok?

So, this is the problem: I have read a lot recently about how we should not flush tampons down the loo. Also, we have seriously dodgy drains and dh has often had to poke around at them with a stick and once fished out a whole load of tampons that has got tangled together in our drains so I know they are a problem. But I am quite a green person and want to do what is right ethically anyway.

So, I have started tring not to flush my tampons down the loo (sometimes they go that way because it is an automatic reaction) but I am not really sure how to dispose of them discreetly. Towels always get wrapped up in the next towels' plastic wrapper, but what do you do with tampons? I have been wrapping them in a bit of loo paper. Are there any other ways of disposing of them discreetly? And what bin do you use for the purpose?

OP posts:
FioFio · 02/10/2008 10:50

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn

MaryAnnSingleton · 02/10/2008 10:51

I put them in a sanitary disposal bag in a lidded bin in bathroom, then they go into main bin

Original poster
DumbledoresGirl · 02/10/2008 10:51

No no no! You mean I should trudge down the garden after every visit to the loo to chuck them on the top of the heap?

I have children milling around. I find it hard enough to get out of the bathroom and to the bin carrying my sordid package without them seeing!

OP posts:
Original poster
DumbledoresGirl · 02/10/2008 10:52

OK MAS where do you get a sanitary disposal bag from?

When I was growing up, my mother collected paper bags from her shopping to wrap towels in, but you hardly ever see paper bags these days.

OP posts:
MaryAnnSingleton · 02/10/2008 10:52

gather them up in bin and when you have a decent haul take them by cover of night to composter !

gingerninja · 02/10/2008 10:53

Bathroom bin put them in a nappy bag or something.

I'm quite suprised people are still putting them down the toilet actually.

MaryAnnSingleton · 02/10/2008 10:53

in Sainsbury's or Boots, by the towels - they are plastic-y but I thing degradable plastic... I'm not sure where you can get paper ones though - maybe health food shop (though have never seen them)

gingerninja · 02/10/2008 10:55

I'm not sure you should compost them TBH. Think I'd look into that a bit further especially if you're spreading the compost around your garden.

ClareVoiant · 02/10/2008 10:55

You can get little scented bags like small nappy sacks for them, but what a faff. Just get a mooncup and be done with the whole problem :-)
i love my mooncup, its fab. I'd never heard of it before i joined mumsnet, and now am a total convert :-)

peanutbutterkid · 02/10/2008 10:55

Surely we all had this conversation with our mothers decades ago? Kind of surprised an adult has to ask...

Okay, do not flush down loo, or would you not have to pay to have your drains cleared??? Can you imagine facing up to what the plumber would find??

Keep old plastic bags -- cereal bags or bread loaf bags, any excess packaging bags will do. Wrap offensive item in one or more bags, put in ordinary bin. Wash hands well. Job done.

Fadge · 02/10/2008 10:56

Value nappy sacks would be cheaper if you want to go the route of bagging it up.

CherryChapstick · 02/10/2008 10:57

Get yourself some cheap nappy bags to keep in your bathroom/handbag then put them out with the rubbish.

I use 'Always' and put them out with the rubbish. Why is it that it is ONLY ever the bloody sanitary products that blow out of the wheelie bin when it is windy and roll down the road?

combustiblelemon · 02/10/2008 10:58

Why plastic? Surely wrapping it in some loo roll and chucking it into the kitchen bin would do?

CherryChapstick · 02/10/2008 10:58

P.S. Tesco value nappy bags are something like 23p.

Cies · 02/10/2008 10:58

I just wrap mine in a bit of loo paper, put it in the bathroom bin, and when the bin´s full put them all in the normal rubbish.

Fennel · 02/10/2008 10:59

You can get little paper bags from the Women's Environmental Network. Or at least you could in the past, I haven't needed them lately due to wonderful Mooncup (yes it is the best )

Or find a local source of paper bags. We get them from various local shops or delivery services, they are quite common around here.

oggsfrog · 02/10/2008 11:01

But surely putting them in a plastic bag and then in the bin just means that the landfill sites will be full of festering bags full of tampons for hundreds of years? Even bio-degradeable bags take years to break down. Not very eco-friendly.

I sometimes buy paper bags off ebay. You can get the little white/brown ones that you used to get quarters of sweets in .
That would be better if you are going to bin them wouldn't it?

I usually throw mine in the fire.

oggsfrog · 02/10/2008 11:03

We have wood burners.... it obviously wouldn't be quite as pleasant if it was an open fire, or worse still a gas fire

CherryChapstick · 02/10/2008 11:06

Is a wood burner eco friendly then?

Original poster
DumbledoresGirl · 02/10/2008 11:07

Ummm, I am not impressed with all the plastic bags you are wrapping your tampons in. Surely the point is to reduce the plastic we are throwing out not add to it with nappy sacks?

Our drains have been cleared professionally. I didn't want to go into the ins and outs of our drains as it is mostly irrelevant to this thread, but we probably have a collapsed drain and need to have anew one put in but can't afford to at the moment, hence dh poking with his stick every so often

Sorry if I shock anyone but I have been cheerfully throwing my tampons down the loo for nearly 30 years and thinking that this is the great advantage they have over towels as they can be disposed of this way. It is only recently that I have learnt that it is not right to do so. Maybe I live with my head in the clouds, I don't know!

Oh and I have a medical reason why I can't use mooncups which I don't wish to discuss here.

So, it seems I am doing the best I can by wrapping them in loo paper. I am not keen on buying a designated bin as I don't like the idea of my children looking into it. I just wondered if anyone had any secrets I should know about, but it seems not.

OP posts:
Original poster
DumbledoresGirl · 02/10/2008 11:08

Ooh woodburner - excellent idea! We are getting one in a few weeks to run our central heating on. It will be burning 24 hours a day and is very near to our downstairs loo so that would be an excellent option! Thanks for that idea oggsfrog!

OP posts:
oggsfrog · 02/10/2008 11:13

It is when you live in a conifer plantation.

I don't have the option of flushing them anyway as we don't have a flush toilet.
We also do not have a bin collection and have to take our rubbish almost 4 miles to a collection point.

bundle · 02/10/2008 11:14

I use a mooncup too

zazen · 02/10/2008 11:14

Yes, we used to burn ours when I was growing up in our stove.
Now I use a mooncup, but before that I used to wrap pads and tampons in paper and put them in the bin for landfill.

I'm very surprised at all the plackky bag wrappeés on here. Save the drains, but feck the landfill!! seems most peculiar logic to me.

Fennel · 02/10/2008 11:16

Here's info from the women's environmental network www.wen.org.uk/sanpro/reports/sanpro.pdf

I can quite see that not everyone gets on with mooncups (though they are wonderful) but there are alternatives - organic cotton tampons binned in paper bags isn't too hard, even if you can't face the more hardcore make-your-own-washable-towels route.