I have no expert knowledge, but I've never heard of NOT flushing them.
I've been on two trips to a sewage treatment plant (not my choice. high school field trips) and the owner went on a rant about flushing tampons (and how it should be made illegal). we could also see them floating around in the water tanks. It was pretty gross. Although i don't have any informative links for you, I can tell you that no, you should NOT flush tampons, it clogs up the workings of the treatment plants.
Yeah, don't flush em. They are trash. At the sewage treatment plants, there is a filter that is used to filter out the trash before it is treated, but still - it's trash. You wanna know what they call the filter that catches that trash? - The bell and whistle filter - the bells being condoms and the whistles being the tampons.
Okay, just found this on Tampax.com. But I'm not sure if we can trust this since they're trying to sell products 'n all. And no mention of biodegradability. Still interested in other opinions.
I had always thought they were okay to flush, at least into a sewer system. Then I moved into an apartment building where the drainage pipes got blocked by tampons someone had flushed (fortunately the layout of the place meant there was no way they were mine). The maintenance guy was pretty certain about what had caused the problem. And the lease where I am now specifically forbids flushing tampons.
In a lot of countries you can't, but this is America damn't, flush away!
posted by whoaali at 8:41 PM on March 22, 2008
I was always told not to flush tampons. This could be incorrect. Maybe it's an old wives' tale.
Once, when my sister and I still lived with the parents, the plumber had to come out and said our toilet was jammed with tampons. We were retold not to flush tampons.
Every public restroom I visit has a little bin for tampons and pads. I thought it was common knowledge not to flush them. Although, I have recently learned that people outside of the US flush tampons without plumbing problems. Lucky they are.
posted by LoriFLA at 8:41 PM on March 22, 2008
Plumbers have their own favorite term for flushed tampons: the red rat. Tampon clogs bring them lots of business, so much business that I'm sure that there's a bass boat named ",Red Rat", in every state of the union.
Tampons who like to stay close to home will clog your toilet. Adventurous tampons will travel on to clog up your municipal waste system. A few bright shining stars will start out to sea only to be washed up on a public beach, where someone's toddler will light up with glee because Mommy! I founded a mouse with a red nose!
99.8% of tampons are made of non-biodegradable material, and they have to go somewhere after you flush them. If you're unlucky, or you have older pipes, they'll clog up the works. If they don't, they'll move on, but they'll turn up somewhere else.
Don't flush them, they'll clog up the sewerage system, as others above have said. Here's a handy list of non-flushable items.
Oh the horror of semi-flushed tampons. I used to live with a roommate who would always try to flush tampons. The brand she used seemed to swell up a lot immediately upon hitting the water. I usually got up in the morning after she did, so I would *frequently* be forced to come up with novel ways to fish them out from where they were stuck halfway in the drain. I tried many times to convince her that flushing didn't work, but I was never successful.
Currently, the female staff at my office is up in arms against the management company of our offices because the women's restroom is constantly out of order. Management is exasperated in return because they say that all of the bathroom clogs are due to flushed tampons and I believe them.
posted by otolith at 9:04 PM on March 22, 2008
I was taught to not flush them. And I've been yelled at (well, lectured) by building maintenance guys (in college, it was a suite, I was not responsible for the flushin) who came to unclog our toiled about not flushing. So I say, don't flush.
posted by rtha at 9:14 PM on March 22, 2008
From the o.b. brand tampons site:
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