I came across this article on Dezeen about a group of Australian scientists developed a way of extracting nanocellulose from the Australian native spinifex grass, which can be used as an additive in latex production. According to researcher Darren Martin, the addition of spinifex nanocellulose significantly improves the physical properties of latex, making condoms both stronger and more flexible.
Algae and agricultural wastes can both be used for cellulose extraction and they are more accessible for everyone than a plant that is only native to Australia. This breakthrough will definitely help localize condom production in Australia. If this material can be an additive to latex to increase the physical properties of latex and produce stronger and thiner condoms, then Australia could potentially get a bigger share on the global condom manufacturing market-a market that is currently being dominated by southeast asian countries. However, condom accessibilities are largely depends on the cost of the condom.
Retail price of a box of 12 pack Durex condoms are between £9.99-£12.99. How much is that in currencies in African countries? For example, that is 189 south african rand and the average monthly income in south africa is R21,432. The social marketing of condoms has two main components. First, a government agency or other organization buys condoms to sell at a discount or works with manufacturers to subsidize their cost, absorbing some of the financial burden so the public has to spend less money. The goal is for condoms to be affordable rather than free since people are more likely to use something they paid for. The rule of thumb is that a year’s supply of condoms should cost no more than 1 percent of the target country’s per-capita gross national product (GNP)
If people can’t get free or discounted socially marketed condoms, then they will choose to risk not using them. But no matter who end up paying for those condoms, the money of condoms sales goes to the pocket of those big condom making companies. With the global condoms being dominated by few big brands(Trojan, Durex, Okamoto, Lifestyle) and the condom manufacturing market being dominated by Karex-a malaysia company who manufacture around 60% of the world condoms. The price condoms are controlled by these companies driven by profitability.
If condoms can be made with easily accessible raw materials from everywhere in the world, then we don’t have to rely on latex condoms produced exclusively in southeast asia. If we can empower people in Africa to manufacturing condoms there, distribute and supply their own domestic market with affordable condoms, then it will dramatically improve the accessibility of birth control in developing countries.
This piece of information also gave me an idea of adding my material to latex to see if it will improve the physical property of it or adding natural latex to my material to see if it will increase the physical properties of my material since it is not as elastic as latex.
(https://health.howstuffworks.com/sexual-health/contraception/condom8.htm)
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