The Disposal of Periodic Unsanitary Politics

Wow, we feel so special and we’re so glad we indulged like that!”. I mean, really! Luxury items! Are they sure? When items such as Jaffa cakes, cake decorations and helicopters are currently classed as essential (ok I’ll give them the Jaffa cakes), how can anyone justify calling our feminine sanitary products a luxury?

Female sanitary products are not the only ridiculous item that has attracted tax over the years, apparently the thing that used to attract tax in Russia centuries ago was beards. Let’s just hope that the feminine hygiene tax issue doesn’t start going down this route and start taxing those of us who might have a bit of an unruly lady garden. It would be, after all, almost as unbelievable as tax on tampons and sanitary pads and that is a reality.

Personally about the most luxurious I feel when I’m going about my monthly routine is when I start my hand washing process and I reach for the soap dispenser to discover that they’ve put the nice stuff in there for us, not when I’m using a sanitary pad or tampon. Soap is classed as an essential item and so, not taxed. So why are my feminine hygiene products taxed and called luxurious and not my hand hygiene ones? Surely they’re all part of the same hygiene process?

How could the whole feminine hygiene process even become remotely luxurious to move it towards the label that it’s been given? What could be done to change it? Tampons and sanitary pads could come with little hand sanitising wipes so that when you are faced with a situation when not only isn’t there any luxurious soap in the dispenser, there’s none, you can still have great hand hygiene after disposing of your sanitary waste. This change could happen now through the washroom vending solutions that charge extra for convenience. To receive a small bonus for our usage of premium priced vending options would soften a blow in a, what is obviously not perfect, moment.

An innovation in sanitary bin design came about in the last decade and it was a breath of fresh air. We applaud the waste disposal industry for their innovative hand waving to open design tweak to sanitary bins or at the very least the introduction of foot pedals. This, no touch, design element should be introduced to all public bathroom entrances. Once we’re done with the whole handwashing process and have squeaky clean, germ free hands, the last thing we want to then do is reach for what is probably one of the most germ ridden places in the whole washroom, the door handle to get out. Replace the manual doors with automatic doors or no door at all. We want to be able to walk out of there without getting a whole new eco system of germs starting up a little community on our hands which we then inadvertently spread around our environment. While a few do have this, most don’t. It’s really luxurious, it’s just hygienic.

So, who can change the law? The government have the power to change the tax on tampons and sanitary pads but do you really think that it’s on their radar? They pay us lip service but I’m fairly sure that as we’re talking they would be suffering from that age old affliction that has plagued politicians for all time, optional deafness. However, you can bet if everybody had to use female sanitary products each month then things would be different.

When I write a piece like this I like to have a little bit for both sides to make it unbiased, however, in this instance I can find nothing positive to say about taxing female sanitary products. Its madness and it needs to stop now, period!! Washrooms services businesses, like ours, do what we can to make the feminine hygiene process as seamless as possible however this particular issue has to be dealt with effectively and show our need for a degree of independence from EU legislation.