This figure is reached if every single citizen uses plastic toothbrushes and replaces them every three to four months as the American Dental Association and many other international health organisations recommend.
On average, a plastic toothbrush weighs around 20 g and so it can be calculated that the whole of humanity produces million kg of plastic toothbrush waste in only days. What many people do not know is that toothbrushes are not recyclable, since small parts get stuck in the machinery.
Of course, this number is a worst-case scenario estimate and is not conclusive, since many people have switched to electric toothbrushes which produce significantly less waste or to zero-waste toothbrushes. Companies and manufacturers are slowly starting to invest in plastic alternatives derived from natural sources, such as bamboo for the toothbrush itself and starch or cellulose for packaging.
Bamboo toothbrushes, for example, have moved into many bathrooms in the last couple of years, since they are now more easily obtainable in most chain pharmacies. Bamboo is the fastest-growing plant on earth and is naturally antibacterial.
Hi Morag, I have just received my bentonite clay and will give making toothpaste a go your recipe I have been thinking about an alternative toothbrush as well, I found some at Biome.
Have a splendid weekend. They should also be at good healthfood stores. I got mine at the Maleny Food Coop. After you have finished with them, you can snap the head off and use the handle as a plant label. The first toothbrushes hit the U. But in the s, when plastic became widely available , brands started mass producing cheap, disposable brushes.
By Humankind makes refillable deodorant, dental floss, and dissolvable mouthwash tablets. Bite makes compostable bamboo toothbrushes and toothpaste bits that foam up in your mouth. The Keep is most similar to a brush designed by startup Goodwell that hit the market in , which also has a metal base and replaceable head, although its handle is made from recycled aluminum and its head is made from a biodegradable bioplastic.
Goodwell costs more than twice the price of Keep. While these brands have found an audience of eco-friendly customers willing to change their behaviors, they make up a tiny fraction of the market. Dental experts started framing the question of dental care as a social, moral, and even patriotic issue. Public campaigns touting the benefits of healthy teeth spread across the country.
In many cases those campaigns were targeted at poor, immigrant, or otherwise marginalized populations. As demand for toothbrushes soared, production followed, aided by the development of exciting new materials called plastics. In the early s chemists discovered that they could make a strong, glossy, moldable— and occasionally explosive —material from a mixture of nitrocellulose and camphor, a fragrant, oily substance derived from the camphor laurel tree.
Soon, bristles also succumbed to the siren song of synthetics. In a Japanese national laboratory came up with a fine, silky substance it hoped would be a substitute for the silk used to make more durable parachutes for its military. Nearly simultaneously, the U. S-based DuPont chemical company rolled out its own smooth, thin-fibered material: nylon. The silky, sturdy yet flexible material turned out to be a perfect substitute for expensive and brittle boar bristles.
In , a company called Dr. Since then, new types of plastic replaced celluloid in the handle, and bristle designs became more complicated, but the basic plastic-packed design has proved as durable as the material itself.
But now designers are beginning to ask: Can we remake this essential object using little or no plastic? The American Dental Association suggests that everyone replace their toothbrushes every three or four months.
At that rate, brushers in the U. And if everyone around the world followed those recommendations, about 23 billion toothbrushes would get trashed annually.
Most are traditional toothbrushes, but some 55 million U. Many toothbrushes are unrecyclable because the composite plastics most are now made of are difficult, if not impossible, to break apart efficiently. In response, some companies have pivoted back to natural material, like wood or boar bristles. Bamboo handles can solve part of the problem, but most of the bamboo brushes on the market still have nylon bristles, so at least that part of the brush has to be thrown away.
Other toothbrushes, like the Radius , pack more, sturdier bristles into their heads. That helps them last longer so they need to be replaced less often—only two brushes a year instead of four.
Some companies have gone back to a design that was originally introduced nearly a century ago: toothbrushes with removable heads. Goodwell, in Portland, Oregon, produces metal handles it hopes brushers will keep for years. But any option that reduces the total amount of material used and packaging is a step in the right direction.
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