# To flush or not to flush... your tampons

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-flush-or-not-to-flush-your-tampons/551915>\
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion\
**Created:** [August 29, 2010, 8:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-flush-or-not-to-flush-your-tampons/551915 "2010-08-29T20:54:21Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Showing post:** 81

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**Author:** ![Shot\_From\_Guns](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ccd318/32.png) [@Shot\_From\_Guns](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shot_From_Guns)\
**Post date:** [August 31, 2010, 7:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-flush-or-not-to-flush-your-tampons/551915/81 "2010-08-31T19:25:06Z")

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> [@Magiver](#):
>
> You acknowledged that tissues are designed not to break down and can be used as an interim tampon yet you say tampons are meant to be flushed. They are not. Even if they make it to the street they are still damaging utility equipment.

1.) I never said that tissues can be used as an interim tampon, I said they can be used in lieu of toilet paper. (Nobody else talked about using tissues for tampons, either–at least nobody I was responding to. \*\*kushiel \*\*was talking about it as a TP substitute.)

2.) I said that because they don’t break down like toilet paper, _they should be treated like tampons_–i.e., pitched in the garbage if there’s a notice not to flush anything other than bodily wastes and TP, or flushed if there isn’t one. That’s a 100% consistent POV. It’s not one you \*agree \*with, but it’s _consistent_.

3.) If a sewer system can’t handle anything but bodily wastes and TP, they need to make that clear _for that system_. Otherwise, I’m flushing reasonable things like tampons, small amounts of tissue or paper towels in an emergency, etc.

> [@](#):
>
> It’s no different than throwing lit cigarettes butts out of car windows because there is no ashtray in the car.

Oh please. Cigarette butts are regular trash and lit ones are dangerous. Used tampons contain bodily fluids and can’t start a fire, and they won’t cause damage to a properly designed and maintained system.

> [@](#):
>
> Toilet paper and a ziploc is not rocket science.

The day you are willing to follow me everywhere and keep my used tampons in a ziploc bag in your pocket is the day I’ll start doing that.

I’m gonna go out on a limb here and guess you’re male. Do you carry a ziploc bag around for particularly epic shits? After all, you might clog someone’s toilet with them! It’s just your own waste–I don’t see why you can’t scoop it up out of the toilet into a bag and bring it home to dispose of it yourself later. :rolleyes:

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