09.12.12
Patented is an absorbent article for personal wear about a wearer’s waist, said article comprising: a liquid permeable inner surface for facing the wearer; an outer surface for facing away from the wearer and an absorbent body disposed between. Additionally, the article contains a front waist region, a back waist region and a crotch region extending longitudinally between and interconnecting the front and back waist regions, said front and back waist regions being one of permanently attached and releasably attachable to each other by an article fastening system to define a wear configuration of the absorbent article having a waist opening, a pair of leg openings spaced from the waist opening, and transversely opposite sides each extending a length Lp from the waist opening to one of said leg openings, the article being configurable from said wear configuration to a disposal configuration in which the article is generally compacted for disposal; and a disposal tab having an attachment region attached to one of said sides of the article and extending a greatest length La along at least a portion of the length Lp of said one of said sides, and a tab region extending transversely outward from the attachment region a greatest distance Dt and being attachable to the article in at least the disposal configuration of the article, the greatest length La of the attachment region of the tab being substantially greater than the greatest distance Dt that the tab region extends transversely outward from the attachment region, the greatest length La of the attachment region being in the range of about 35-100% of the length Lp of said one of said sides of the article, the attachment region of the tab having a first surface and a second opposite surface, the first surface being attached to one of said sides of the article, the second surface of the attachment region of the disposal tab defining part of the article fastening system such that the second surface at least in part attaches the front and back waist regions in the wear configuration of the absorbent article.