50% of women in the UK flush sanitary waste – This needs to change…

Do you know that half of women in the UK flush sanitary products down the toilet*?

For those of us working in the industry, it’s common knowledge that nothing apart from toilet paper should be flushed. But it doesn’t seem so the for the general public. It costs £88bn a year to unblock sewers – this is carried out by the water and sewerage companies and comes out of our water bills.

Not only are we paying for this, the environment is too. According to the Marine Conservation Society, sewage-related debris makes up around 6% of beach litter!

It’s not just sanitary products that are wrongly flushed down the loo – condoms, wet wipes and cotton buds are also contributors to the issue. During the Great British Beach Clean, 4000 wet wipes were found on the UK coastline. Here are items that should never be flushed:

• Tampons
• Sanitary Towels
• Paper Towels
• Cotton Buds and any cotton wool
• Wet wipes
• Makeup wipes
• Dental floss
• Fat, oil and grease

To save on your water bills and reduce beach litter, we recommended placing suitable sanitary bins in every public and commercial cubicle. You can also place visible signs in your bathrooms to encourage people to use the sanitary bins provided instead of flushing them away.

As an individual, if you’re worried about the impact your sanitary waste is having on the environment, there are alternatives to tampons and sanitary towels. These include menstrual cups, menstrual pants and more.

Learn more about our Sanitary Bin services. We have vast experience offering washroom services to the education, hospitality, retail, healthcare and corporate industries. Hygenie Washrooms are based in Nuneaton, but work across Birmingham, Coventry, Oxford, Warwickshire, Leicester, Northampton, Nottingham and further afield.