Chernovetskyi: tampons in their right place, please

Kiev, Ukraine -- The city with the highest female-to-male ratio in the world is pioneering a disposal service for tampons in an effort to clean up its sewage system.

Kiev mayor Leonid Chernovetskyi announced the initiative Sunday in a press conference attended by city councillors, health experts, sewage engineers and representatives of the female hygiene industry.

"Effective immediately, all used tampons are to be disposed of only through properly designated disposal bins," said Chernovetskyi. "Flushing them down the toilet is not an option anymore."

Kiev's burgeoning female population has led to a spike in tampon usage in recent years, which has caused problems for the city's antiquated sewage system. An independent group commissioned by the city council to study the sewage situation recommended the institution of the tampon disposal service in order to provide a better means for women to dispose of their womanly wastes.

Chernovetskyi said the distinctively coloured pink bins will be placed strategically throughout the city, with a higher concentration dispatched near beauty salons, laundromats, and supermarkets. The bins will be emptied on a biweekly basis. "The goal is to have a disposal bin within two minutes of every woman wherever she may be in our fair city," he said.

Feminist groups have blasted the city council's move, saying it's a violation of a woman's right to menstruating privately. Says Olga Piemesova, head of the Ukrainian Women's Association (UWA): "It's already embarassing enough that we have to bleed on a monthly basis, but to have us practically announce it to the world by taking it out in public is downright humiliating."

Chernovetskyi dismissed the objections, saying women don't have to take out their tampons if they don't want to. "They can ask their husbands, boyfriends, brothers, neighbours," he said. "There is simply no excuse for them to fight this program, which aims to make life better for everyone."

The tampon disposal bins were imported from Xinzhuang, Taiwan, which considered launching its own tampon disposal program in 2009 but abandoned it in favour of the construction of a new public library.

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