Roxanne Douglas reports for The University of Warwick’s The Boar on Fair Squared, a company selling ethically produced condoms:

Obviously we all know that using a condom is one of the most effective forms of contraception and preventions of STIs out there, if used correctly (or maybe you didn’t, now you do, congratulations you’ve learnt something new today!). However, here at The Boar we’ve been reliably informed that there is something else to feel worried about when ‘wrapping up’ this winter: How ethical are your condoms?

Now, I’m not talking about the ethics of what or whom you are using them for, that’s your own business (and who am I to judge?); what I’m talking about is the ethical manufacturing and where the condoms that you use get their rubber from. Here is where Fair Squared comes in: they produce the world’s first ever fairly traded condoms. It is difficult to realise that the way condoms are manufactured is problematic for the environment and for the people making them in the first place: that fact is that people rarely think about what their every day (or less frequently used, again, no judgement) products are made from or who makes them.

The way Fair Squared work is they make sure a fair price is paid to rubber plantation workers in India, plus a fair trade premium, which goes into a fund jointly administered by the management and the workers for projects to improve living and working conditions. The condoms themselves are produced by a carbon neutral manufacturer based in Germany. Furthermore, Fair Squared condoms are guaranteed and certified with a CE mark and tested to the highest possible standards, so they are every bit as safe as other brands…

Full article here.