ecoero.nl Sex Toy Recycling

Is it a real issue?

Usage and ownership of sex toys are on the rise worldwide. In recent years, electronic sex toys are taking a high proportion of the sex toy market. As the most owned sex toy, at least 60 million vibrators are sold every year. The situation is nowhere in the world has a keep-running system to recycle used sex toys from customers. With the huge amount of sex toy consumption, 0 percent of sex toys are recycled. They all end up in general bins. There are electronics, plastics, batteries, and rubber in the discarded sex toys. And they are all being burned and emitting toxicity. It is not a small problem, but it is deeply hidden.

Why everywhere is trying to boost recycling but people are silent when it’s about sex toys?

After posting online, collecting used/ broken sex toys from people, and visiting almost all adult shops in Amsterdam, one of the biggest adult product wholesalers in Europe, I found that there is deep shame underneath this issue. No one wants to talk about it. People are ashamed to bring their sex toys to the public to recycle them as other electric appliances. At this moment, sex and pleasure is still a taboo topic. And there is a huge information disconnection between all the departments around the sex toy industry. Even if people want to recycle them, no one knows how to do it in the right way.

What can we do?

Society needs exposure therapy to solve this issue. Designed sex toy recycle bins will be pop-ups at different events and locations for people to recycle their sex toys, also attract people's attention so they can see this issue and learn the possibilities of recycling used sex toys. We will also organize talks and workshops. With the E-waste processor Statice B.V, we used our hands to recycle almost one kilogram of sex toys I gathered. We found the possibilities of sex toy recycling with the existing recycling system in the Netherlands. After consulting with Stichting OPEN (the E-waste organization). I found safe ways to recycle them with the recycle bins in supermarkets/hardware stores. I also discovered how to improve sex toy designs to help to recycle. This information should be given to everyone to link the disconnection between sex toy production, consumption, and recycling.