Sex can be bad, good, brain-melting, average, fun, embarrassing and so much more. Nearly all of us have sex at some point in our life. Pleasure now is more accessible than ever and doesn’t need a lot of resources. However, if you want to spice up your sex life a bit, there are a vast number of helpers you can use: I’m talking about sex toys of course.
Taking the matter of pleasure into our own hands (quite literally) can be exciting and freeing. When I started on my eco-journey there where many things on my bucket list I wanted to find green alternatives for. To be honest, sex toys weren’t one of them. Now though, after having changed my diet, switched to climate-friendlier ways of transport and either thrifting or sowing my clothes, I have decided to concentrate on one of the most personal matters one can have: my sex life.
So, what makes a sex toy eco-friendly?
Let’s start by discussing the big no-goes. Batteries in vibrators, for example. Every year, several billion dry-cell batteries are purchased worldwide and only a fraction of that number are being recycled. Plastic is another problem in toys and their packaging is usually not eco-friendly either. The toys themselves can even cause health problems like impotence or cancer when they are made of materials like PVC, vinyl, parabens, or phthalates. Therefore, toys without harmful substances are not only good for your friendly neighbourhood greenie but everyone really.
How to pick the right toy
Toys that are not harmful to your body and give you a better eco-conscience should be made of either glass, responsibly harvested wood, or medical silicon. Yeah, you read that correctly, I said glass and wood. But fear no harm! Products like Crystal Delights glass dildos and anal plugs are very durable and won’t crack easily. Same with wooden toys. They come with a special coating that prevents splinters and many of them are even vegan and biodegradable.
What really surprised me though is that the world’s first 100 per cent green sex toy already exists. To be honest, Caden Enterprises’ Earth Angel vibrator won’t win the award for the sexiest toy ever created. However, the toy checks nearly all the boxes that an eco-friendly toy can have. The Earth Angel is made up of 100 per cent recyclable materials and it needs no batteries because its power comes from a rechargeable cell. You need to produce the energy to use the vibrator on your own with a handle to charge the power cell. So, not only is this vibrator eco-friendly, but it also offers you a good arm workout! Four minutes of cranking the handle offer you 30 minutes of pleasure. You really have to work for that orgasm, darling!
What to keep in mind
All those toys come with a price of course and some of them are more expensive than conventionally produced toys. Affordability therefore is important. Another matter to keep in mind for me is also regionality. Eco-friendly sex toys at the moment don’t have the same market reach as other products. Therefore, only a few sex toy companies produce ecologically friendly products. While I know of a company that produces wooden toys in my country, I wouldn’t want to order something from farther away for example due to emissions caused by transporting a toy from one continent to another.
Some people like to use what mother earth gives us in the form of vegetables (carrots, cucumbers) or fruits (bananas). While they do work as dildo substitutes, please use a condom for not getting in contact with pesticide residue and for hygiene reasons. Fortunately, eco-condoms have been on the market for a while now, same as green lubricant.
The next time I’ll treat myself to a new bedroom companion, it will be a green sex toy. Because, you know, I want to feel good while feeling good.
Learn more
Helen Meriel Thomas tried eco-friendly sex toys for Vice.
Stylecast shows you eight earth- and body-safe products including condoms and lubricant.
Let us know if you tried an eco-toy and what you think of them. For science… you know!
