Everything that is recyclable should not be.
People are not only recycling paper goods and plastic containers these days, but now condoms have been added. According to a USA Today article headlined, “Used condoms are being ‘recycled’ as hair bands,” in an area of Southern China, used condoms are being recycled and made into hair ties and rubber bands.
When this came to our attention, the one question that came to our mind was, why? Does China feel that the issue of conservation is important enough to recycle used condoms? In the past, Chinese officials said the United States, along with several other industrialized countries, are not up to par with recycling.
Not only can this new method of recycling create cheap colorful hair accessories, but in the process of doing so, it can also be very harmful to anyone who comes in contact with it.
The usage of used condoms is a well-intentioned effort but it is too the extreme. It is unimaginable to picture someone wearing a hair bow from a condom that someone has already worn.
A Chinese dermatologist said that the used condoms could cause people to be infected by warts, HIV/AIDS or other sexually transmitted diseases that are in the hair ties or rubber bands if placed in their mouth, according the USA Today article. Is China taking environmental conservation overboard?
Quite frankly, it’s disgusting to have a used condom as a hair accessory. There is no good reason to recycle condoms.
Latasha Edwards for the Editorial Board.