Saturday, January 26, 2019

Choosing From Sustainable Toothbrush Alternatives

By Kimberly Wallace


It has been noticed an increased interest in eco-friendly and degradable items, so many companies are shifting their attention towards alternatives, such as sustainable toothbrush options, bio-degradable paper bags, replacing Styrofoam cups and so on.

If you already had taken an interest in environmental friendly options for you and your family, you may have considered replacing the toothbrush as well. The most common and widely known are the bamboo ones. However, there are quite a few companies that produce them and they are not the same, so research is important before you making your choice. Some of the low quality ones were reported to get soggy and have an unpleasant taste.

One of the questions you may ask yourself is if the bamboo toothbrush is indeed 100% compostable. Unfortunately, this is not the case with all of them, as the bristles are usually not biodegradable. The only ones that are fully compostable are the ones that use pig hair, which is not desired if you are vegan or vegetarian. In this case you may just have to settle with only the handle being compostable, which is still a big improvement from the plastic and rubber ones.

Besides bamboo, other types of eco-friendly toothbrushes would be the ones made from recycled plastic, corn or wheat straw. There are a few companies that create and sell these types, including one made from recycled yoghurt pots. When they are ready to be replaced you can send them back and they will recycle and reuse them.

Moreover, some of these toothbrushes have also entirely compostable packaging, using recycled paper without any glue and tape. The wrapper can be processed from corn starch, so it can decompose within a month in a commercial composter. You can also decompose them at home but it will take more than a month because the heat isn't as in the commercial ones.

The packaging and wrappers need to be in agreement with the rules and regulation of the countries they will be exported to, and thus the companies are constantly trying to come up with new and better ways to create them. A new wrapper is in test, made of wood cellulose.

Besides the bamboo toothbrushes, there are some types of charcoal toothbrushes. However, it is not advisable to use them or the ones with activated charcoal in them. This is because even though they claim to remove stains and plaque and prevent bad breath, as well as cavities, there are no scientific studies to substantiate this claim. Dentist are warning against it as it may strip your teeth of their enamel.

Given that there is a general concern regarding the environmental problems we are facing, it is great to see that many people are now making changes towards a more sustainable life. With plastic being one of the materials used widely and in a lot of products and it being non-degradable, any replacement or reducing its use will start to make a difference for our planet.




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