Reduce, Reuse, Recycle That….Dildo?

Interview by Guest-blogger Chris Baskind (really bad puns are mine however)

All too often here on Eco Chick, we cover a small way to ‘green’ your life, something like using energy efficient bulbs, perhaps, or taking bags to the store instead of using plastic ones. Invariably, people write in that small stuff like that doesn’t really matter, that we’re all going to hell in a polluted handbasket, and sitting around writing about this stuff, or even doing it, is not going to end up helping at all. To those people I say: Check out this video of the dildos received through ‘Rabbit Amnesty’, which is a sex-toy recycling program run by British sex-toy purveyor LoveHoney:

Once you see them altogether like that you realize, well, when a lot of people have a place to send their dildos for recycling, they will, and a whole ton of junk just got prevented from going to a landfill. Not so pointless anymore huh?

So … How do these things get recycled? How do you handle a retired
rabbit once it arrives?

We will collect the vibrators and pay for them to be recycled at a Designated Collection Facility (DCF). The vibrators will be stripped of components that can be reused – these would most likely be resold. Printed circuit boards, which many vibrators feature, contain hazardous metals such as lead, chromium, cadmium and mercury. It is the DCF’s responsibility to ensure that these are disposed of to the legal environmental standards. Specialist recyclers will normally recover these materials.

If any vibrators are returned in boxes, the cardboard will be sent to a specialist cardboard recycler for processing.

If vibrator owners want to return the product to a DCF themselves, they can
find their nearst one here (UK-only).

But of course we hope they’ll use Rabbit Amnesty!

Is this UK-only?

Unfortunately it wouldn’t be environmentally friendly for us to encourage people to fly their old vibrators over to the UK for recycling, but we hope that other sex toy retailers around the world will follow our lead.

How have the materials used in vibrators and sex toys changed over the past few
years?

There is a general move away from sex toys that contain phthalates. We’ve covered it a lot on LoveHoney, explaining the issues and even showing customers some of our products being tested in the laboratory.

While customers shouldn’t believe some of the more lurid headlines they see, we believe that if better materials for sex toys are available, manufacturers should use them – and they are.

What else is getting “green” in the adult toys industry?

Personal lubricants are getting greener by the day. Sliquid is glycerine- and paraben-free, and ‘Yes’ lubes are even approved by The Soil Association, (Britain’s organic and sustainable farming nonprofit)

(For more on the ins and outs of organic and toxin-free lubes, check this and this. For the environmental effects of condoms, read this. To get the buzz on low-impact vibrators, read this.)

electronics, Recycling, sex toys, vibrators

Starre Vartan is the founder and editor-in-chief of Eco-Chick and author of The Eco-Chick Guide to Life (St. Martin's Press). A problogger and oft-quoted green living expert who has been featured in the NYTimes, Elle, Glamour and Whole Living, she is a contributor to The Huffington Post, Inhabitat, and Hearst's The Daily Green, and is currently editor-at-large for Coco Eco Magazine. An active ecofashionista, she has style edited for Plenty magazine and coordinated runway shows. She splits her time between Connecticut and NYC and calls Sydney, Australia her second home, even though it was her first (as that's where she was born and most of her family resides). When not writing, blogging, or researching her next book, she is trailrunning, trying to cook, or snowboarding.

9 Comments on “Reduce, Reuse, Recycle That….Dildo?”

The Beautiful Kind

Wow this is great! As for me, I use glass dildos – they last a lifetime! OK now I’m thinking about what will come of them once I’m dead – I guess my daughter will inherit them?! I mean they can be sterilized, you can even run them through the dishwasher!

03/25/08 » 11:22 am »
Gross

Beautiful Kind, please for the sake of functional families, and for your daughter’s mental health, don’t turn your dildo into a hand-me-down.

03/25/08 » 3:02 pm »
Starre

Yeah, maybe that’s one of those things that you should take to your grave. Or it could be recycled…glass recycles pretty easily. That’s funny to think of dildos being run through a dishwasher though! Wouldn’t have thunk it!

03/26/08 » 7:28 am »
haven

i like the idea of recycling plastics such as dildos….let us at least try to save our planet…if that’s the least thing that we could do…then we should do it…small things can make big difference…u might think that it’s just a tiny deal but it’s definitely a great contribution….

09/03/08 » 3:14 am »
sex toys princess

i love mother earth, this is my planet and i’d go for the idea of saving her. it’s better to use eco-friendly sex toys!

10/14/08 » 2:56 am »
bunny_vibe

I do agree with you ms. “haven”. We have to choose a sex toys that is eco-friendly.

10/15/08 » 3:11 am »
Jamie

I have a toy that I would like to recycle. I have looked and can’t find a place that does so in the U.S. Any suggestions?

11/30/08 » 6:49 pm »
Katie

Jamie go to http://www.recyclemysextoy.com they have all the info on their site about how you can recycle your toy’s in the U.S

01/03/09 » 10:58 pm »
marie

Need to recycle some, not something can just throw away?

09/13/11 » 9:04 am »