Waste free ablutions - part two

You brush your teeth, CH CH CH CH .....

Dental products, May 2011

Dental hygiene is not waste friendly.  First there is the tooth brush, which is not to my knowledge recyclable (in our area anyways).  Yes, you can reuse tooth brushes as cleaning brushes (at least I do anyways), but if you replace your toothbrush as often as they recommend (every 3-4 months), then a average size family would go through about 12-16 toothbrushes a year. All be it in the grand scheme of things, this isn't a huge deal, but when looking for ways to minimize household waste, there are better options than the standard toothbrush, nicely summarized in this article at green living tips.

After studying toothbrush options, my first choice was the recyclable toothbrush by Preserve.  The toothbrush is made from recycled content, with a mail back option, so that the toothbrush gets recycled into other things like plastic chairs and tables.  The website also offers a toothbrush subscription, a nice reminder that it is time to replace your toothbrush. One small problem, where can I buy one of these toothbrushes?

Nature's Fare is the only store in Kamloops that sells Eco-friendly toothbrushes. As my first choice was not available for sale, I opted to buy a brand that has a handle made from recycled American dollar bills by Radius.  The heads are replaceable so our whole family can share one handle and each have a separate head.

Another source of dental hygiene waste: dental floss.  I was hoping to find biodegradable dental floss at Nature's Fare.  No such luck.  I ended up buying an antibacterial cranberry flavoured vegan floss also by Radius which came in recyclable packaging on a 50 meter spool (as opposed to the 11 meter non-recyclable plastic packaging spool by Johnson & Johnson that we usually buy).

And lastly there is the issue of tooth paste.  I wonder how much tooth paste is wasted in every package thrown away?  Have you ever cut open a tube of toothpaste to try and get every last bit of tooth paste out?

I have been looking for alternatives for store bought toothpaste and found this recipe on the clean bin blog which is pretty easy to make using baking soda, glycerine, salt and peppermint extract.   I am not going to try and sugar coat it to convince you to try, it tastes terrible.  And if you want to try for yourself, I will gladly make you up a batch as I have plenty of ingredient for more.

Another alternative is to stop using toothpaste altogether.  Mint&Cilli blogged about the negative effects of toothpaste and her experience giving up toothpaste.  She read a book, "Good teeth, birth to death" by Dr. Judd which explained what toothpaste does to your teeth - coats them in glycerin, preventing the enamel to regrow (and heal the tooth).

When I asked my dental hygienist, she told me that the act of brushing (and flossing) is enough to clean the teeth and that the only thing missed from not using toothpaste is the fluoride (perhaps a fluoride rinse every few months would do the trick?).  I haven't used toothpaste for three days and I have't really missed it.

I look forward to the day when recyclablitliy is incorporated into the design of all packaging.  Why can't toothpaste (or anything for that matter) come in a reusable and appealing jar?  Why do they even sell tiny rolls of floss? Why can't we recycle toothbrushes?