Would YOU Use A Second Hand Sex Toy?

Hands off my vibrator!

It's a horrifying thought for most women - the idea that our secret adult products might fall into the hands of the wrong person.

Whether it was your mother stumbling across something she shouldn't, or the cleaner finding "that" drawer near your bed, we've all had a cringworthy sex toy moment.

For most of us, these are things we'd rather stayed deeply, deeply private.

But soon, sharing our adult products might become much more common.

Gulp!

No, we're not talking about popping round to the neighbours for a cup of sugar and a loan of some anal beads.

Several companies globally have begun looking for a way to safely and hygenically repurpose old and out-dated sex toys.

The sex toy industry is booming!

Thanks, in part, to books like 50 Shades of Grey and Hollywood's many sexual coming-of-age movies, we've become a lot more open to experimentation - with each other, but also with our battery powered friends.

Mostly, this is a great thing!

However, sex toys are mainly made from materials such as complex plastic polymers and non-porous silicone - which is a little bit more than most recycling programmes can cope with.

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So, this begs the question: what happens to our unwanted adult products?

According to Patty Moore, CEO of Sonoma, a company specialising in recycling, “It is not the materials themselves that are the problem. It is the lack of a collection and processing infrastructure. Almost any material can be recycled if you have a cost-effective collection, consolidation, and processing infrastructure."

Officially in the U.K., all electronic products must be disposed of via recycling, but without the right processes for doing this, the chances of an eco-friendly solution are slim.

So, if we don't want them all to end up in some massive dildo landfill, we need to find a way to cleverly repurpose them.

Independent companies such as Love Honey offers discounts to customers who send in unwanted vibrators. The shop then sends them to an electronics recycling company called SWEEEP, which claims to have recycled 20 tons of vibrators.

Similarly an enterprise called Sextoyrecycling.com have come up with a way to collect, sterilise, deconstruct and recycle used, old and broken toys.

But these organisations are still very small and certainly can't keep up with our lusty consumption of adult products.

[Brits are Kinkier Thanks to 50 Shades and Sex and the City]

Steadily though, as we are beginning to realise the growing demand for clever ways to recycle sex toys, we expect to see more and more of these repurposing companies springing up.

What do you think? Would you buy a recycled vibrator? Let us know in the comments and on Twitter!