Question about tampon applicator disposal
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Anonymous
Sorry, but when I catch/crush bugs, or scoop up dead bugs I throw them in the toilet. I have the weird fear that it isn't really dead and it is going to crawl out of the wastebasket and come and seek revenge. 
You are not going to get me to stop flushing dead bugs. Besides, they are definitely biodegradeable! |
Anonymous
I’ll also admit to flushing the occasional dead fish. It somehow seems like a more respectful burial than throwing them in the sea. We tried burying one outside once and I think the neighbors cat dug it up. |
Anonymous
I think it's just the one person with the applicator. As for the tampons, I think it's ignorance and once learned, they stop. People do know not to flush wipes? Even flushable wipes? |
Anonymous
Use tissues…as menstruation products? As in Kleenex? I’d never be able to leave the house during my period and would spend most of the day in the bathroom changing out the tissues. I can only imagine what would happen at night. |
Anonymous
| OMG. You flush the plastic??? |
Anonymous
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Your dumb a** flushes a piece of plastic down the toilet ?
You deserve a $10,000 plumbing bill. |
Anonymous
Same! It was years ago, the plumber AMA, I think. I had no clue not to flush the tampon itself (obviously not applicator or wrapper). Now using a cup thanks to DCUM. I still can't convince my parents not to flush so-called flushable wipes. |
Anonymous
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LMAO People on DCUM so frequently fail to thoroughly read the OP and consider more than their own narrow circumstances, that I was going to write an annoyed comment that said, basically, "Absolutely the OP shouldn't be flushing applicators and wrappers, but why is everyone assuming she's flushing plastic?! Paper and cardboard exist?!"
Then I thought to double-check the OP and sure enough, she says it right there. I have become what I hate. Anyway. I will admit that for some time, I didn't really realize that the cardboard and paper and tampon itself shouldn't be flushed. I wasn't being lazy, it had just escaped me somehow, except for when I'd visit, like, a historic home and they'd have a million warning signs about the old plumbing. I don't know how I failed to grasp this-- it helped that I lived almost exclusively in newish apartment buildings from 18-30 or so, when I realized I had been doing it horribly, horribly wrong. Can't remember how I learned it, but it wasn't because I ever clogged the plumbing (at least not immediately, because I never knew). Because I lived in spaces with strong-- and shared-- plumbing, it just never came back to bite me. I guess I was lucky it also never did when I was visiting someone's home or whatever. I feel terrible about it now! For the past ~15 years, I have done the right thing and thrown everything away. I feel I should also make penance somehow. Maybe donate money to help build better sanitation systems in other countries. It definitely never occurred to me it would be okay to flush anything plastic, though. |
Anonymous
LOL. I'm the same, except I need a penance for still using plastic (but NEVER flushing an applicator, SHEESH). I just can't quit them, but I'm almost in menopause so there's that. I also don't flush wipes. I think we all need to go on a field trip to dislodge a FATBERG (https://www.nationalgeographic.com/science/article/fatbergs-fat-cities-sewers-wet-wipes-science) - and the worst offenders have to stay the longest there 
OP would be there allll day. |
Anonymous
I'm still wondering how I didn't realize this for so many years, though. I'm going to say that my mom never mentioned it because she doesn't use tampons, then I never had female roommates and got married-- to a man-- when I was barely out of my teens, so it just didn't have that much chance to come up? Plus the availability of this kind of Internet conversation/info was lower until 15-20 years ago. Yes, now I notice the warnings that sometimes appear in public bathrooms, but I think I used to interpret them to apply to plastic, because: 1) people are always saying stuff like "if it didn't come out of your body, don't flush it," and obviously a tampon isn't produced by your body, but it does come out of it, and I think I thought throwing the tampon away would be a health hazard for other people who emptied the trash? Not defending it, just saying there was a sort of logic to it.... and 2) The paper wrapper really is more or less as flimsy as toilet paper and the cardboard applicator is sturdier, but you do see it start to fall apart pretty quickly, so I must have just assumed it was fine enough. |
Anonymous
Anonymous
Only third world countries like Washington DC use that system. |
Anonymous
Well, if the company would just switch to a recyclable type of plastic, then we could just put them in the recycling instead of adding to the landfill. They should do that. |
Anonymous
Well yes of course, tiny squished bugs in toilet paper are fine (ideally Scott 1000) - they're likely not much bigger than the corn nuggets you pass. And occasional vomiting in the toilet. Pretty much everything else goes in the trash. I sincerely hope OP's a troll, because I don't understand how someone can be so incredibly, massively stupid. |
Anonymous
That reminds me, a few years ago our fed agency offices were closed because of the plumbing. After we reopened, there was an Agency Notice about what not to flush down the toilets. Some of the things they found in our GSA-leased building's pipes included: diapers (adult, I assume), plastic wrappers, condoms, and a CELL PHONE. All of these feds were raised by wolves, I tell you. |