What is a sanitary product?

First thoughts are always tampons and pads, but the term ‘sanitary product’ can encompass so much more!

Sanitary products may also include:

• condoms
• rubber gloves
• cotton buds
• incontinence pads
• tampons
• period pads

...and really anything else designed to handle our natural bodily functions.

Why can’t you flush these items?
Our wastewater network is only designed to handle the three P’s (pee, poo and toilet paper), so you really shouldn’t flush anything else!

But why are they bad for our pipes? Put simply: they cause blockages.

Sanitary products do not break down. This means they can clump together to form pipe-clogging masses or cling to invasive tree roots. The more absorbent products can even block smaller pipes on their own (because of how greatly they swell). Each of these situations end in major disruptions to our operations and massive inconveniences to our community.