A priority for women’s public restrooms is having proper sanitation equipment available, which includes feminine hygiene receptacles in the stalls. But many women’s restrooms on campus do not have adequate trash receptacles for feminine hygiene products.
That will change soon as University of Memphis Physical Plant employees will begin filling the stalls in the next two weeks.
Ron Brooks, assistant vice president of the Physical Plant, said the new models are cleaner and easier for maintenance workers to handle.
“Believe it or not, the article you guys [The Daily Helmsman] wrote — a company in Maine saw the article,” Brooks said. “They sent us some information, and we started looking around, and we found these.”
The Daily Helmsman covered a story Feb. 23 about missing receptacles in women’s restrooms on campus. The U of M Student Government Association passed a bill later in the semester about funding the installation of feminine hygiene receptacles.
This installation of new receptacles was supposed to be complete by the beginning of the fall semester, but Brooks said the installation was delayed because they did not receive the receptacles on time to put them in restrooms.
“We are going to start with the UC (University Center), and we should take a couple weeks,” Brooks said.
Brooks said the receptacles will be installed in bigger buildings first like the Ned R. McWherter Library and the FedEx Institute of Technology. He also said he wants to prioritize buildings with inspections coming up.
“I want to jump to journalism because they have accreditation coming up in January,” Brooks said. “So I would like to make sure that they have theirs covered.”
Newer buildings like Wilder Tower, the McWherter Library and the UC all have receptacles built into restroom stall walls. But many older academic buildings including Meeman Journalism Building, Mitchell Hall, JM Smith Hall and Ellington Hall still lack adequate trash receptacles. Brooks said he wants to replace the old receptacles in the main buildings first.
“The big buildings that we have a lot of people coming in, like FedEx, we’re going to get on those right away,” Brooks said. “And then we will start populating the other buildings, especially once our guys get familiar with how to put them up and mount them real quick.”
Some female U of M students said the lack of receptacles is inconsiderate to women’s needs.
“You want to make sure it’s secure somewhere, so you won’t have your personal items out anywhere,” said Shawnya Jackson, a junior pre-occupation therapy major. “I feel like it needs to be somewhere in the stalls, so you have a place to put your things.”
Freshman Brooke Shea, a public relations major, said although she has not been to all the restrooms on campus, she has noticed a lack of receptacles.
“It’s a little inconvenient because you can’t put them anywhere else — you don’t want to put them in a regular trash can because you have to carry it around and find one,“ Shea said.
Ron Brooks shows of the new receptacle models with disposable lids. Physical Plant employers will start mounting the receptacles in two weeks, starting with larger buildings like the UC. Smaller stalls in the women’s restrooms do not currently have receptacles for women’s hygiene products.
Many handicapped restroom stalls have wastebaskets in them, but these often are old and across the stall from the toilet. Ron Brooks said these will be replaced by the new receptacles.
Smaller stalls in the women's restrooms do not have receptacles for women's hygiene products. Female students find it an inconvenience to have to carry waste to the cans outside the stalls.
