PERIOD 101: CAN I FLUSH MY TAMPONS DOWN THE TOILET?
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Written by Maria Tucci
How you can prevent toilet blockages and save the beaches by disposing your pads and tampons properly.
We have all done it, or if not, thought about doing it. It seems easy and convenient; the tampon just disappears, and you forget it was ever an issue. But unfortunately, your little sanitary product is now on a journey to become one of the blockages water companies are faced with trying to clear up and another major player in ocean pollution.
Given how well tampons and pads are good at absorbing, it is not shocking to know that sanitary products expand in their size due to the liquids within the drainage system adding to a massive blockage in these waterways, known as fatbergs. This nasty concoction of tampons, pads, condoms, baby wipes, all held together by all the fats and oils we pour down the sink, form this horrific lump that has to be drilled out and cleared by disposing of this in a landfill – yes, it is not only tampons that get flushed but shouldn’t be, there is a wide variety of products found down there! Or in other cases, sewers filled to the brim with waste ends up flowing into our streams and rivers, and we can expect to be swimming alongside them when we get to the beach during the summer, or try out wild water swimming, currently all the rage!
How to dispose a tampon.
The solution is simple; just bin it! Who would want to cause pollution, right? But life does not always give you a nice clean bin that works to dispose of your tampons and pads, does it?
We have all been there, whether at the beach, a boyfriend’s house, or a public toilet… Bins are not everywhere, and certainly not always clean and working; It is frankly degrading to walk around with a bloody tampon in your pocket searching for a bin. I can’t count the number of times I had to triple wrap it in toilet paper to keep my tampon from leaking in my pocket or desperately trying to get the wrapping to seal up around my used pad until I found a bin. When at the office, there is that infamous moment where you are happily doing the right thing and binning but as the lid rises open, someone else used pad is there to greet you, unglamorously stuck to the inside of the lid- nice – and its lunch-time…. All of us who bleed regularly have been there, seen it, and most likely understood the struggle.
Thankfully today there are fewer makeshift solutions to this issue, and more handy ones, too, though adding an extra bin or two some places may help regardless. One is FabLittleBag, which offers innovative sanitary disposal bags in which you can put your used period products in, seal them with just one hand in a neat and opaque little pouch and dispose of them when you find the next bin available. RELIEF! This saves you from staining your pockets, smelly handbags, and just that awkward feeling you may get from leaving your tampon and its odour in someone else’s bin. As they are made from sustainable and recycled ingredients, this little beauty of a bag helps binning to feel like a confident experience, not awkward!
Is there a better solution?
Another solution could be going all eco-friendly and using reusable period products such as menstrual cups, washable period underwear or pads, or those organic cotton tampons. This way you wouldn’t be asking how to dispose of your tampon. While they may sound ideal for the environment, it is not always easy to change habits and to turn the whole population into eco-activists who are willing to advocate for newer ways to deal with this monthly hassle. In a perfect world, it is not binned that we would require more of, but reusables. However, for now, it's these small steps that could lead to a change, one that will hopefully better the environmental worries and make our everyday lives stress-free – or at least less stressful. It’s not enough to educate about the negative impact of tampons and period products flushed down the toilet, but there must be a solution too, and little portable disposal bags FabLittleBag offers are the way to go. Small bag, Big impact.