# 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:** 84

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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, 8:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-flush-or-not-to-flush-your-tampons/551915/84 "2010-08-31T20:06:32Z")

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> [@gaffa](#):
>
> No, a tampon is not a “reasonable thing”. You have been told so by plumbers and a city septic system civil engineer.

I’ve had _a couple_ of people tell me that \*some \*systems can’t handle it. I have yet to see any evidence that this is a universal problem. I live in a relatively new building in a big city. I have even toured a waste treatment center here, and I’ve \*never \*heard that flushing tampons is a problem _where I live_. I even just did a Google search for a couple of sets of terms that could turn up some info _relevant to me_, and the closest I came was something about tampon _applicators_, which are \*not \*supposed to be flushed and I never do.

If \*your sytem \*can’t handle flushing tampons, which are at least \*in theory \*designed to be flushed, it’s \*your job \*to communicate that to people who use \*your \*system. It’s no more inconvenient for you to do so than it is for millions of women to dispose of bodily fluids–wastes that are potentially a biohazard–in open trash receptacles and/or carry them around, when there’s potentially no need to do so. And, like I’ve said repeatedly, I have no problem disposing of my tampons in the trash _if you explicitly tell me it’s a problem for that area_.

If flushing tampons were really as universally destructive as you’re claiming, I have no doubt that their manufacturers would have been forced to stop claiming them as flushable years ago.

Like **Magiver** , I’m going to guess that you’re also male. Same question: If you’re going to take a really big shit, do you do it in the trash can?

> [@](#):
>
> I feel a Pitting coming on.

Yeah, you and fifty other people who’ve threatened the same and never followed through. Yawn.

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