The title of this article may have a very obvious answer for some, while for others it is cause for discussion and doubts. The reality is that not only flushing tampons down the toilet is bad for the environment and plumbing, but flushing many other objects is also bad for you.
“The toilets are not trash cans” ( toilets are not trashcans according to their form in English). This is the phrase from a famous campaign launched by the National Association of Clean Water Agencies (NACWA). It is an organization that looks after the interests of public wastewater treatment facilities in the United States.
In the UK, on the other hand, two trillion menstrual items are shed per year. While in New York alone, about $19 million has been allocated in recent years to repair clogs in the pipes. Meanwhile, in Europe the elimination of menstrual waste takes between 500 and 1000 million euros.
Why shouldn’t tampons be flushed down the toilet?
Tampons and other menstrual products, such as wipes, are made from materials that are ultra absorbent. When you throw tampons down the toilet, they get wet, swell, absorbing a lot of liquid, and increase in size. In this way, they get stuck in the pipes and cause them to clog.
On the other hand, if they manage to pass through the pipes and reach the sewage treatment plants, they will not be able to pass through their filters and will go directly to the sea or rivers. Once there they will contaminate not only the water, but also the beaches and surroundings, since their material does not degrade easily, such as toilet paper.
Isn’t it the same as toilet paper?
The tampon boxes clarify that they cannot be flushed down the toilet and that they cannot be recycled either. Furthermore, in some cases it is added that they should not be processed in plants intended for wastewater treatment and that they can damage septic chambers.
This gives us the clue that a tampon is not similar to toilet paper in terms of material and decomposition. Toilet paper is designed and manufactured to disintegrate immediately after being used and thrown into the sewer. It degrades almost completely (95% in just 20 minutes). Wipes take hundreds of years.
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