Sex Tech May Have Finally Found Alternatives to Plastic
Biodegradable materials might present the answer to sustainability in sex tech.
For all its pleasurable innovations, the ongoing sex tech boom comes with an unpleasant—and potentially disastrous—price: each new toy invariably puts an additional strain on our already overtaxed planet.
However, there are sextech mavens working to make their products as sustainable as possible.
Promising innovations include new materials that make toys recyclable, and even decomposable.
The Gaia Eco Bullet
Sex toy producer Blush builds their Gaia Eco Bullet out of BioFeel, a non-porous combination of cornstarch and bioplastic. The company bills the toy as biodegradable and phthalate-free.
After it is stripped of its mechanical parts, the Gaia Eco Bullet completely decomposes in approximately 47 to 90 days.
However, even this product isn’t completely environmentally friendly — although better than most, it still requires one AAA battery to function.
Introducing Biolene
The female pleasure company Womanizer uses Biolene, an eco-plastic, for the PREMIUM eco.
According to a post from the company’s blog, Biolene is made of polylactic acid and is completely biodegradable.
Womanizer chose to use this type of eco-plastic based on the results of a study that was published by the Institute for Bioplastics and Biocomposites at Hannover University.
The researchers there found that Biolene, compared to other eco-plastics, most closely resembled ABS plastic while remaining efficiently biodegradable.
Hurdles remain for green sex tech
Sextech has a unique problem when attempting to be ecologically friendly.
Everything from computers to shoes can be cleaned up, repaired, and resold to slightly reduce their environmental impact.
This isn’t an option for sex toys because of their intimate nature. Unless the cleaning and repairing are done for the toy’s owner—and no one else—they have to go straight from the bedroom to the landfill.
Raw materials provide another significant obstacle.
Manufacturers have to use specific, usually non-sustainable materials, like silicone, to ensure their products are body-safe.
Sustainability is necessary now
Our plant is teetering on the edge of environmental disaster, primarily propelled by the 380 million tons of plastic we produce every year.
Striving to make sex toys more environmentally friendly won’t save the planet, but it would help make the situation a little less dire.
More than that, green sextech would draw attention to the importance of environmental awareness: that we have this and only this world.
