Ten billion condoms and 159 thousand tons of sex toys become non-biodegradable waste every year around the world. It is the impact on the environment of the most passionate of human activities. But today someone is trying to make amends with the right materials
Even the most intimate act can have serious repercussions on the entire community. It is an iron law that seems to know no exceptions. Not even when applied to sex. In recent years, in fact, it has been discovered that making love pollutes. And a lot too. A cause-effect link that derives directly from the need to have safe relationships (read condoms), but above all from the decision to build an entire industry around eros.
The problems are many. And all difficult to deal with.
First there is the waste. According to data from UNFPA, the United Nations Population Fund, around ten billion “condoms” are used around the world every year. An environmental problem. Most are not biodegradable. The most common are made of rubber treated with lubricants. For those who are allergic to latex, however, there are variants in polyurethane and polyisoprene, while female condoms (a minimal fraction of the total) are in nitrile. Many different materials, but all equally resistant to biological degradation. According to Greenpeace data, in fact, a single condom takes at least thirty years to disappear. Without forgetting that rubber production is linked to tropical deforestation.
Then there are sex toys. Yes, in short, all those objects of multiple recreational use in the sexual field. Most have such a short life cycle that they become almost disposable. So much so that every twelve months around 50 million “games” are thrown into the trash. Among these, many vibrators, especially low-cost ones, are produced with polluting and non-biodegradable materials. And it is estimated that sex toys alone can generate around 159 thousand tons of waste every year.
Plus there are batteries. A single used battery disposed of incorrectly can contaminate up to 40 liters of water for approximately 50 years. And it’s not much better with internal rechargeable batteries (leaving aside the amount of CO2 produced during the charging processes).
Lingerie items can also be dangerous. Many sexy outfits come from the so-called fast-fashion, rapid fashion with a highly polluting supply chain (both in terms of the quantity of water used and the biodegradation times which are close to two hundred years), while a good part of the “fetish” category products are made of PVC and artificial fibres.
Accounting for the carbon footprint of sex is virtually impossible to keep track of. The most extremists state that the calculation should also include car journeys to get to a sexual encounter, the energy needed to light and air condition the room, and the flows of sexual tourism on a global level.
But if for that matter, then even solitary love isn’t all that good for the planet. It is estimated that porn video streams around the world pollute as much as French households in a year. This is a disconcerting fact, but one that has been known for some time. So much so that about ten years ago the site PornHub promised to plant a tree for every hundred videos viewed on its site under the “gifted” category. And given that at the time the platform guaranteed self-satisfaction to around a billion users per month, the final result must have been more than extraordinary. Reality told a different story. The latest data found online explains that the publicity stunt led to the planting of “only” 15,000 new shrubs in the United States.
Not even “literature” can offer zero impact pleasure. To realize this, just look at what happened in Great Britain with EL James’ best-seller Fifty Shades of Grey. The story of the twenty-one-year-old university student who signs a contract to become the submissive of a rich and charming industrialist ignited the country’s erotic fantasies to the point of becoming a phenomenon with over five million copies sold. The success lasted about a year. Then, starting from 2013, an infinite number of copies passed from home bookshops to the shelves of second-hand markets. However, without anyone being willing to buy them. The situation soon became paradoxical. The BDSM adventures of Anastasia Steele and Christian Gray couldn’t even be sent to the scrapheap. All the fault, the Telegraph explained, “of the glue used for the binding”. The bestseller, in practice, had turned into a real environmental disaster.
In recent years, however, things seem to have changed. The ever-increasing attention to the well-being of the planet has also put the spotlight on the sustainability of eros. This is demonstrated by the growth of movements that not only seek to combine pleasure with respect for the environment, but which affirm the need to make love, in a more or less figurative sense, with the Earth. According to the Italian Institute of Scientific Sexuality, eco-sexuality is based on the idea that even the way we experience the intimate sphere has an impact on the environment: «It is not just about the choice of biodegradable sex toys or natural lubricants, but about an integrated vision in which the body, pleasure and nature are connected. The Earth can be seen as a partner to be respected and cared for, with whom it is possible to relate erotically.”
The movement comes to affirm the importance of having sexual relations in places and in ways that do not cause damage to nature during and after intercourse (such as not trampling on or cutting the leaves of trees).
Without reaching these “peaks”, for those who are so sensitive to ecological issues even in the very private, there are various good practices that can be implemented: from the use of organic condoms (such as those made with the intestinal membrane of lambs) to natural lubricants with low environmental impact, to ecological and completely biodegradable lingerie and to the purchase of second-hand sex toys (sic!). Precisely the sensitivity towards these “toys” has grown exponentially. The market grows by 9 percent. And in Italy the number of companies specializing in zero-impact sex toys has increased by 40 percent. The materials have changed. Instead of the usual colored plastics, more and more “dildos” and vibrators use wood and borosilicate glass, which is therefore unbreakable. The other components are hypoallergenic, biodegradable and, sometimes, even vegan.
This is the case of Dafne, a company founded in 2021 with the aim of creating products capable of giving pleasure without polluting. «It all started from an observation», explains Rodolfo Lironi, CEO of the company. “We asked ourselves why people spent 80 euros on creams to put around the eyes and then settled for lubricants that cost 5 and were not safe.” From there a research process was born together with gynecologists, midwives and doctors which led to the creation of totally natural products, capable of meeting all needs.
«We have developed a specific lubricant for menopausal women, based on visnadine», he explains. «It is a substance extracted from a herb that costs around 7 thousand euros per kilo. We have thus managed to create a safe and effective product, even if people are still reluctant to spend certain amounts.” Dafne managed to create the first completely biodegradable sex toy, a bio/plant based anal plug, capable of dissolving in 5-10 years. But sometimes even the most virtuous companies are forced to follow the market. «Our product is very hard, so people buy it because they are satisfied with the final result, while with vibrators it is different. People prefer softer materials like silicone. So we had to adapt”, concludes Lironi. All for a double satisfaction: that of the end user and that of the planet.
