Feminine hygiene product disposal etiquette
Hi everyone. I have been trying to figure out the right answer and have found that opinions seem pretty split on this topic so I am really curious of other's take on this... When you use the little metal box in a bathroom stall, do you leave the brown bag in there or throw it out and open a fresh one from the stack?
I was getting rid of the bags after I use them at work, but one of the other women was leaving the bags in the box with her stuff in there (wrapped in TP). I was grossed out by this, but when I googled etiquette for these I saw a lot of people saying you obviously are supposed to leave it or there's not enough bags for everyone. I thought that's why bathroom staff are supposed to check and replenish supplies regularly and why when you are at a very busy public women's bathroom there's never any bags left in the box. But a lot of the cleaning professionals I found talking about it were annoyed that people treat the bags as single use. So yesterday, I didn't throw out the bag I used, and this morning our cleaning woman confronted me (not sure how she figured out it was me and I'm kinda bothered by that unless she was just talking to everyone about it). She told me to throw out the bag after use. I will obviously go back to doing this since it's her preference, but it really confused me after all my googling.
So were you ever taught proper etiquette around what to do in public restrooms that have the little metal box? If so, what were you taught and if not, how do you handle it?
Posted Oct 14, 2025, 12:50 PM UTC