Greener Cleaning for your Teeth

How your brush your teeth might not be the biggest way you have an impact on the planet, but it’s another in the long list of green living choices you can make every day. If we each live to the ripe old age of 80 years, we contribute on average 300 toothbrushes over our lifetimes. That’s a lot of wasted plastic! Annually, we Americans add 50 million pounds worth of toothbrushes to landfills, most of which is non-biodegradeable plastic that just sits there for hundreds of years.

Or, your old toothbrush may make a trip to the ocean where it can choke wildlife, end up floating in the middle of the sea, or wash up on the beach where it’s not only unsightly, it’s a hazard for land animals. No one wants their romantic walk along the beach to be marred by the discovery of someone’s old teeth cleaning products!

We as consumers need to speak with our shopping dollars to signal to companies producing these products that we want greener options that don’t litter the planet. There are, thankfully, some green products on the market today that make it easier for you to brush more greenly. Try the following:

• Recycled content: Some manufacturers have capitalized on the recycled plastic possibilities by producing entire toothbrushes that are made from recycled materials. Recycling rather than using virgin materials has three-fold benefits: it saves energy, saves water, and reduces the amount of waste going to the trash. Don’t worry, the bristles are usually made from new plastic. Radius and Recycline both carry recycled-content toothbrush options.
  
  
• Replaceable heads: Some toothbrushes can now be found with heads that you replace when they’re worn out. This way, you reuse the handle over and over again, reducing the overall non-recyclable waste that you create. Eco-DenT, Radius, and Fuchs Ekotec have all developed options along these lines.
  
  
• Biodegradable content: Another great option for greener teeth cleaning is to buy a toothbrush made from natural, biodegradable materials rather than plastic. A company called Acca Kappa makes a toothbrush from a cotton extract, which will apparently biodegrade in about six months!
  

And if you’re addicted to your electric toothbrush, you, too, can get a greener toothbrush by opting for one powered by the sun! Although still relatively untested these could reduce your energy consumption, and many come with replaceable heads, making them somewhat more eco-friendlier than conventional toothbrushes.

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