Trimming my waste: Week 7 (bamboo toothbrush)

Goals - Week 7:

1. Reduce my reliance on single/limited-use plastic items
2. Slowly replace things with non-plastic alternatives
3. Stop bringing plastic into my home

Stretch goal: zero-waste toothpaste

About half of the nearly 600 billion pounds of plastics produced each year go into single-use products. Just think about that for a second.

Some are indisputably valuable, like disposable syringes. But many disposables like spoons, lighters, pens, grocery bags etc are essentially prefab litter with a heavy environmental cost.

When I started this challenge, I said that I couldn't afford to just strip my home of plastic. What I'm going to do instead is slowly replace it, as things need replacing. And I'm starting with inexpensive, single (or limited) use things. Like my toothbrush.

In the US, we're sending about 50 million pounds of plastic toothbrushes to landfills each year. And if we followed our dentist’s recommendations and replaced them every three months, we'd be throwing even more of them away.

What are the alternatives? There are lots of them! Not only are many of them biodegradable, sustainable, and renewable, their packaging is too! I got my bamboo brush from Mighty Nest - a company a mile up the road from me. Every part of the brush (including the packaging) is either compostable or recyclable. 

It feels a little different in your mouth. And that, my friends, is the only difference. It's a toothbrush :)

Here are some other interesting options: 

• Smile Squared (they have a buy one, give one campaign) 
• Brush With Bamboo
• Preserve (I have friends committed to this company! They make everything from upcycled yoghurt tubs and their simple return program means you never throw used brushes away)

Do any of you have an option you love?