A lot of planning and moral consideration went into the design of our newest product, our Natural Intimacy premium, vegan condoms.
At Natural Intimacy we think holistically, we know that a condom is a regulated Class IIb Medical Device. Science, technology, and medicine combine to prevent unplanned pregnancies with huge efficiency, so how could there be scope to make this a more ethical, more natural product?
Our first decision was whether our condoms would be made from rubber latex, polyurethane, polyisoprene, or lamb intestine.
To break it down…
- Being sensitive to vegan issues, lamb intestines were promptly removed from the debate.
- Polyurethane and Polyisoprene use synthetic ingredients which are not ideal ecologically. It also means they’re not biodegradable, so they were no longer an option.
- Latex has many benefits and so it was an easy decision to choose it.
No condom is 100% latex, if it was it would fall apart and wouldn’t be safe for contraception. Stabilisers are added, but the amount is less than 1% in our condoms, so they are biodegradable. However, we’re not suggesting that you dispose of them with your grass cuttings and potato peelings on the compost heap in your garden. But over a prolonged time, they will break down when disposed of in landfills.
What makes our condoms different from other latex brands? Other latex condoms may have added chemicals, spermicides, and lubricants, which may be harmful to your health and to the environment.
Latex begins its life as sap in trees in tropical climates such as Thailand, Sri Lanka, Malaysia, or Indonesia. These are developing economies where ethical business practices could be difficult to verify and audit. Although the idea of flights to Southeast Asia on the company expense account to check out suppliers sounded tempting, we decided to outsource on this occasion.
We source our latex from rubber plantations which are affiliated with the Fair Rubber Association. They develop initiatives to make the plantation more sustainable and a better place to work, and indeed often live, for its workers. We pay a premium price for their latex but the quality is high and the ethics are above board.
Take a look at the Fair Rubber Association’s website to see the impact that such initiatives have. In the same way that Fair Trade coffee and cocoa are prominent on supermarket shelves, now we can push Fair Rubber forwards too.
!!! Our condoms will be launched in July 2022. They contain instructions in DE, EN, FR, IT, ES, NL, DA, NO, SV, FI, PL, PT, HU. If you are a business owner and would like to be one of our first distributors, please get in touch!!!
For two decades David has been the owner and director of several marketing and distribution companies. During this time he has learned the indisputable benefits of looking after customers, colleagues, workers, suppliers and the local community, treating them all as respected stakeholders in a common project. Recently he consolidated his personal beliefs and business ethics by founding the Natural Intimacy brand and developing it as an Ethical Company.
