Lauren Singer is a zero-waste blogger based in New York City. She has produced so little landfill rubbish in four years that it isn’t even worth throwing away. Instead, she proudly displays it in a glass jar. She says one of the most common questions that people ask her is: “How do you have sex?” Are there condoms in the jar, they wonder. Or are zero-wasters too busy for sex, what with all that recycling and making their own toothpaste? On the contrary, Singer tells me. “Environmentalists are horny right now.”

Singer’s insight into the sexual appetites of ethical consumers was gleaned when her shop, Package Free, recently started carrying a biodegradable vibrator. She sold out fast. “People were crazy about them,” she says. “We were so shocked.”

The item in question is called the Gaia Eco. Made by Blush Novelties, it was launched in January as “the world’s first biodegradable vibrator”. As sex bloggers and critics have noted, it looks deceptively like an old-school, battery-operated “bullet” model, but apparently it produces an enviably powerful rumble. Made from a non-porous, starch-based bioplastic, it has a recycled-looking fleck to its muted colour options of coral, green and blue. Unusually for a consumer product boasting eco credentials, it is cheap, retailing at £14.99 in the UK.

Zero-waste blogger Lauren Singer with the jar that contains all the rubbish she has accrued in four years.

From sex toys to lubricants to condoms, more natural and sustainable options have appeared in recent years, with varying levels of success. Sustain Natural is a US company that produces “ethical” condoms. What, you may ask, is eco-conscious about a disposable, non-biodegradable product that is required by public health authorities to be encased in plastic? Meika Hollender, who founded the company with her father, says: “While there is some waste, they’re still net-positive products because they’re preventing unplanned pregnancy and the spreading of STDs [sexually transmitted diseases] – and overpopulation is a huge driver of climate change.” Sustain says its natural rubber comes from sustainable and fair-trade plantations and that its condoms are vegan because, unlike many condom makers, it doesn’t use milk-derived casein to improve the texture of the latex.

Other ethical condom brands have popped up, such as Einhorn, a wacky German company that also makes vegan condoms with an emphasis on sustainable and ethically sourced rubber. Meanwhile, a biodegradable option has been around for years, but it is not vegan. Naturalamb condoms, made by Trojan, are fashioned from part of a sheep’s intestine. Their “skin-to-skin” feel gets some excellent reviews online, although they don’t protect against sexually transmitted infections (STIs) – only babies.

Singer’s landfill jar, it turns out, doesn’t contain used condoms. “I practise the rhythm method,” she says. “So I use an app to track my period. That has worked for me for the nine years I’ve been having sex.” When she’s not in a relationship, she asks sexual partners to get tested for STIs before sleeping with them. “If I don’t feel comfortable asking them to get tested, it’s probably a good indication that I shouldn’t sleep with them,” she says. However, she is all for other people using ethical condoms. While you can’t avoid the wrapper, she says: “The best thing to do is find a film-plastic recycling programme such as TerraCycle.” The worst thing you can do with a used condom is flush it down the toilet. Condoms are bad for sewage systems and terrible for marine life.

Forty-three per cent of millennials report using lubricants, which is new. Traditionally, it has skewed much older Meika Hollender

Natural, planet-and-body-friendly lubricants are also on the up. Gwyneth Paltrow has recommended using coconut oil, but natural oils aren’t compatible with condoms, because they can compromise the latex. Yes, an “organic intimacy company”, offers organic, water-based lubricants that are widely stocked in the UK. Sustain also makes one that avoids petrochemicals and parabens. Hollender says that, according to statistics from the research group Mintel, “43% of millennials report using lubricants, which is new. It has traditionally been used as a treatment for vaginal dryness and has skewed much older.” She believes that younger consumers are driving sales in natural lubes. Not only do younger women also get affected by vaginal dryness, she says, but also “lubricant can create a more pleasurable, longer-lasting experience”. Before she got into what she calls the sexual wellness business, Hollender hadn’t considered using lube herself. “After talking with friends and customers over time, I was like: ‘Wow, a lot of my friends are using lube; I had no idea. Maybe I should be using lube.’”

There are challenges in making an effective formulation without natural oils and petrochemicals. “We recently upgraded our formula,” says Hollender. “Sometimes organic lubricants can get tacky and be less long-lasting than a petrochemical-based product. But we’re really proud of our formula. It’s mostly water-based, with a bit of aloe. It’s 96% organic and even slicker than before.”

The sex-toy market still offers relatively few eco alternatives. The success of the Gaia may be a reflection of this gap – or perhaps it shows that only now are people ready to marry sustainability with their sex lives. Jack Lamon is the co-owner of Come As You Are, a co-operative sex shop in Toronto. He says: “The [solar-powered] California Exotic Solar bullet vibrator has been on the market for 15 years and no one really cared. The world’s first fully recyclable vibrator was made probably eight years ago now. It was called the Earth Angel and it was also wind-up, or you could use batteries. Really cool initiatives, but they haven’t taken off.”

Einhorn makes vegan condoms with an emphasis on sustainable and ethically sourced rubber.

There is also the Italian designer Silvia Picari, who makes sculptural wooden sex toys with various stimulating rings, bumps and balls carved into them – they look a bit like tasteful wooden toys. But, of course, the most sustainable sex toys are those that don’t require the purchase of a new product at all and instead make use of household items. The sex blog Lovense lists many ideas – electric toothbrushes, shower heads and vegetables are among the least hazardous – and recommends putting condoms on anything for internal use (with the obvious caveats about splintering, “pointy parts” and combining electricity and water). Proceed with caution …

In the UK, the sex shop Lovehoney will recycle customers’ old vibrators; Come As You Are offers a similar programme. Lamon says sex toys made from ABS plastics are sterilised and passed to external recyclers. Products made entirely from silicone are sterilised in an autoclave (boiling alone doesn’t kill all pathogens), after which the silicone can be repurposed into anything from a running track to a secret project for which Lamon and his colleagues are amassing vast stores.

“Any porous material, such as jelly rubber or latex, has to be landfilled,” says Lamon. “There’s no way you can clean them and make them not a biohazard. You can’t put them in an autoclave, because they’ll melt.” However, consumers are moving away from these materials for health reasons. “A lot of the rubber products tend to contain chemical plasticisers such as phthalates.”

The proliferation of body-safe, high-quality sex toys was led by the feminist sex shops that emerged in the 90s, says Lamon. Anything that is 100% silicone won’t leach nasty chemicals and “will really last for ever. Materials such as stainless steel and glass are amazing for that, too.”

To Lamon’s mind, the most environmentally affecting change in the industry has been an overall improvement in quality. “When we started selling vibrators 20 years ago, they used to last between three and six months,” he says. “Now rechargeable vibrators will last anything from two to five years. People have been able to make plug-in vibrators, like the Hitachi Magic Wand, last for a decade or more, and silicone dildos stay in the exact same form for decades. That’s the most environmentally responsible type of consumerism one can engage in with the sex industry.”