When Earth Day was launched in the 70s, there was a lot of rumour-mongering that Earth Day was secretly a scam run by the oil companies. On one hand, it was the largest single-day protest on earth, and on the other, it ended up being funded largely by Exxon.
We see new "ethical" sex shops pop up every day online - each declaring that there's nowhere to buy "body safe" toys in Canada, or that they only stock "environmentally friendly" toys, but only sell a bunch of environmentally questionable made-in-China sex toys.
We've always been a little too earnest for our own good. We've always cared too much. We've always been too obsessed with ethics to make real money. And we've always been concerned by the environmental implications of selling sex toys for a living.
And because we're us, and we care so deeply, we actually do something about it.
Which is to say, while most of this "industry" truly does not care particularly about their impact on the environment, we do our best to stock toys that actually last and won't just wind up in landfill. We run a sex toy recycling program in-house at great expense so that when your toy does break, it doesn't just wind up in landfill. We don't stock toys with chemical plasticizers that are toxic to the environment and disrupt our hormones (except for the Magic Wand Original, sigh). We stock replacement chargers and parts so your fave toy can keep on going even after your cat demolishes the cord. We even run an annual sex toy swap complete with complimentary UV Sex Toy Sterilizers on hand so that sweet silicone toy your ex left behind can get a new "forever home" when you can't bear to look at it any longer.
We even reuse the bubble wrap and paper and foam chips we get from our vendors, and offer carbon-neutral shipping at no cost to you - whether you select Canada Post, UPS, or local co-op bike delivery at checkout.
We've always had firmness, loudness, and vibration strength ratings for every sex toy on our website, but for this Earth Day, we're adding environmental and ethical ratings to our product detail pages so you can do your part to select a sex toy that reflects your values and priorities.
Is it enough? No. We're not naive enough to think that our little co-op sex shop can singlehandedly reverse climate change, but we do know that if all of us make little decisions that make the world better, the world will get better.
If we all buy products from companies that truly care, other companies will start caring too (because they care about money!), and soon enough things will change. We can choose to live in a world of Amazon and Pink Cherry and disposable Shein clothes. Or we can choose to live in a world where we support more sustainable, ethical, and environmentally friendly options.
So, what world do you want to live in?