Contraception: What is the greenest of them all?

From Choice Words

Eco-minded individuals face similar conundrums on a daily basis: when it seems that all available options impact the planet in a negative way, how does one choose what to do? Recently Slate tackled that dilemma regarding contraception. When condoms wind up in landfills but traces of oral contraception are found in water (are are feminizing male fish as a result), what is a sexually active, environmentally conscious individual to do?

In the end, condoms won:

Given that the condoms represent only about 0.001 percent of the 152 million tons of trash American households produce annually—and that we still need a lot of research into the precise effects that pharmaceuticals are having on our water supply—condoms seem to be the greener choice. This is especially true when you factor in all the packaging that typically comes with American pharmaceuticals—the plastic dispensers, the printed instruction leaflets, and so on.

As this article pointed out, any form of birth control is going to have less of a negative impact on the environment than an additional human being, which is precisely why I always use two forms of contraception (condoms and the ring, since you were wondering. I like to think that Nuva Ring results in less estrogen being released into water, since the hormones are so handily centralized, but I haven’t conducted any research to back that up). Anyway, the important thing to keep in mind is that family planning is in itself a green act.