Condom Sense: Condoms and the Environment

So you are intelligent sufficient to practice secure sex (stopping both pregnancy and STDs) by effectively working with a condom. But what do you do with the condom when you are carried out with it? Right here are some hints on environmentally-friendly condom disposal.

Firstly, do not flush your condoms, ever! Flushing condoms is not the way to deal with them. Condoms can clog the plumbing in your house (or the plumbing wherever you take place to be). This can be an pricey and embarrassing circumstance. If the condom manages to make it via your septic system, it will only end up with the solid waste. This signifies that somebody has to pull it out of the sewage therapy, which isn't pleasant for anybody. The condom could even make it past the treatment plant. This is not superior because it means that it could finish up in the water supply, and the final thing we need to have is more pollution in our rivers, lakes, and oceans.

Not all condoms are created equally. Most condoms are made of latex, which implies that they will biodegrade. Latex, yet, does not biodegrade when it is under water, which is why it is not fantastic to flush your made use of condoms. Condoms are not entirely produced of latex, nonetheless, and the other items on condoms (spermicide, lubricant) may well affect the biodegradability. The best option seems to be to send them to a landfill and see how they pass the test of time.

Some condoms, which includes all female condoms, are created of polyurethane, a type of plastic. These will not biodegrade. There is no solution, even so, except to put them in the garbage, for the reason that your local recycling depot will not recycle utilized condoms. They will not even recycle new condoms.

Other condoms are produced of lambskin. These are entirely biodegradable condoms. Do not run out and get lambskin condoms just but though! Lambskin condoms do not protect against sexually transmitted diseases. The pores in the lambskin are compact sufficient to cease sperm, and so avoid pregnancy, but the pores are large adequate to let sexually transmitted illnesses and infections by means of. This solution is only viable for folks in monogamous relationships who have been tested for sexually transmitted diseases. If this is the case, you could think about an even way more environmentally friendly barrier form of birth control such as a diaphragm, cervical cap, or shield. Ask your doctor what is greatest for you.

Regardless of what material of condom you use (latex, polyurethane, or lambskin), you are going to have a wrapper to dispose of. These foil wrappers will not biodegrade, nor can they be recycled. This merely has to be put in the garbage.

Even if your latex or lambskin condoms are biodegradable, it is perfect not to attempt to compost or bury your condoms. Animals will smell the human scent and try to dig up what you have buried. This implies that there will be unsightly made use of condoms around. Burying your condom is tantamount to littering: and there are improved approaches to deal with your condoms obtainable.

So, in the finish, what is the top way to dispose of your condoms? The very best thing is to wrap it in a bit of toilet paper or paper towel (or any other biodegradable material: believe paper bases such as paper bags) and then to put it in the garbage. Don't wrap your condom up in plastic, as then it undoubtedly won't biodegrade. The very good news is that the semen and vaginal fluid on the condom absolutely will biodegrade, and may facilitate the condom biodegrading.

And lastly, bear in mind...by no means reuse a condom. Although lessen, reuse, and recycle is the motto for environmentalism, you need to put your well being initial on this one. Do not minimize your condom use, don't reuse your condoms, and it is too poor that you can not but recycle them. To think on an environmentally broader scale, making use of condoms is environmentally friendly simply because it is preventing the spread of communicable diseases. It is also preventing conception, and young children have been documented to be hugs consumers of worldwide resources.

Hopefully soon we will be in a position to figure out an environmentally friendly way to practice safe sex. Until then, we'll make do with what we can, and we will continue using condoms.