Trash Situation in Counseling Hall Girls’ Bathroom Can Be Fixed

Many students who use the girls’ bathroom in the counseling hall have noticed a growing trend as a result of the lack of feminine hygiene product trash cans in stalls: trash all over the floor.

Each stall in a women’s restroom typically has a small metal trash can attached to the wall of the stall that is used to dispose of trash from feminine hygiene products like pads or tampons. This trash includes products that have been used, as well as the wrappers from the products.

There are none of these trash cans in four out of the five stalls in the counseling hall girls’ bathroom. The only stall that does have one is the wheelchair accessible stall.

Due to the absence of these trash cans, people who need to change a pad or tampon in that bathroom have nowhere to dispose of their trash, leaving them with only a few options: carry the trash to a large trash bin somewhere else in the school, flush the trash down the toilet, or simply leave it on the floor of the bathroom stall.

Few people would feel comfortable carrying trash from the bathroom to another location in the school, especially because of the stigma already surrounding menstruation.

Flushing the trash down the toilet may get it out of the way, but it could potentially cause enormous plumbing issues that the school would have to deal with down the line.

Most people seem to leave their trash on the floor, seeing no other reasonable option.

As more and more students find themselves in this situation, the trash begins to build up until the floor is essentially covered in trash.

“They don’t have any trash cans anymore so [the trash] is just sitting on the floor,” said sophomore Mackenzie Crall, who uses that restroom almost every day during second period.

Callie Wong (‘19) added that the bathroom “just smells really bad.”

“I only use that one if I really have to pee and it’s my only option,” said Wong.

There is no excuse for leaving students without access to a way of disposing trash from feminine hygiene products. Whether the trash dispensers were purposefully taken away or it was just an oversight, this is an issue that needs to be rectified immediately. It’s unhygienic, bad for the school’s plumbing, and puts students in unfair and uncomfortable situations.

The solution to this issue is not complicated. The school just needs to ensure that every stall in women’s restrooms have a trash dispenser for feminine hygiene products. It’s an easy action that will drastically improve students’ experiences using the bathroom at school.