Let’s be honest, with nothing to do during 2020 we know people were having sex more often.
It feels like every second post on my newsfeed is a pregnancy announcement.
So, it doesn’t come as too much of a shock that STIs are on the rise but it’s because people are ditching the condoms.
Concerns about the environmental impact of condoms are leading “eco-sexuals” to avoid protection, thus contributing to the spike in STIs.
As we know,condoms are a one-and-done deal — you definitely don’t want to reuse them (remember when police seized 324,000 condoms being washed and resold in Vietnam?) and, despite a very common rumor, most frangas aren’t biodegradable.
Which leads some environmentally conscious Aussies to put our planet before their health with the goal to live a plastic-free lifestyle.
But that doesn’t mean using condoms is hands-down bad for the environment. One eco-friendly condom company, Sustain, started by father-daughter team Meika and Jeffrey Hollender, argues that using condoms is actually good for the environment, despite the fact that it’s a disposal product, because condoms contribute to population control. As humans are the number one threat to the environment, preventing unplanned pregnancies is definitely environmentally friendly.
Well, that’s an interesting way of looking at it.
The latest figures reveal a big rise in chlamydia and gonorrhoea cases over the past decade.
The Daily Telegraph reports from 2008 when there were 13,945 cases of chlamydia in NSW, the number rose to more than 32,000 in 2019. While it dipped to 26,000 last year amid pandemic restrictions on socialising, the decline was minuscule compared to the fall in influenza cases from 115,000 in 2019 to 7000 in 2020.
Sexual health expert Professor John Scott told the publication that activists urging people to not use condoms due to their environmental impact, were contributing to the decline in usage.
“I wouldn’t discount the impact. If you’re someone that’s environmentally woke, you are going to have these competing things to consider — the environment or sexual health. It’s the irony because having more people on Earth isn’t good for the environment,” he said.
“Getting the right messaging around safe sex out will be hard as there are all these competing ‘truths’.
“I don’t think we take the health authorities as seriously as we once did.”
An estimated nine billion condoms are sold worldwide each year and with most being non-biodegradable and the majority ending up in landfill (along with a lot of seman).
There are five common types of condoms you can choose from:
- Latex condoms – while you may think this is biodegradable as latex is made from rubber from a tree, you are incorrect. In order to get your rubbers as thin as possible for ultimate pleasure a lot of other chemicals and products are used.
- Polyurethane condoms – a type of plastic so it’a a no go.
- Polyisoprene Condoms – Polyisoprene is a synthetic form of latex and, as is usually the case, “synthetic” here means not biodegradable.
- Nitrile Condoms – The FC2 is an internal condom (sometimes called a “female condom”) and it’s the only one currently on the market made of nitrile. Nitrile is a synthetic rubber and therefore not biodegradable.
- Lambskin Condoms – don’t let the name deter you. Lambskin condoms are made from an all-natural material — but it’s not skin. Instead, they’re made from the intestines of sheep. Now these are biodegradable – we got there. But there are reports that the pores in lambskin condoms are small enough to block sperm, but not small enough to block most STIs — including HIV.
Fun fact, my Nonna uses sheep intestines for her salami.