Toothbrush
Toothbrushes are items used by millions of people every day. This means that billions of toothbrushes are thrown away every year. Yes, billions. That is a lot of toothbrushes. Many of those go to landfills where they sit for hundreds of years, or they end up in oceans and rivers where they cause damage to the environment. It´s even worse when electric toothbrushes are thrown away, since they have batteries in them that leak acid into the ground and into rivers. But the disposal of toothbrushes is not the only problem. Handles for plastic toothbrushes are made from hard plastics that are made out of crude oil. Manufacturing nylon, used for the bristles, creates nitrous oxide, a greenhouse gas that is 310 times more potent than carbon dioxide.
There are tooth brushes available that are made out of recycled plastic, like the Preserve toothbrush. There are also many toothbrushes available made out of bamboo. These all have nylon bristles though, except for the ones at Life without plastic.
- Humble Brush.
Do you prefer using an electric toothbrush? The only one that I could find that comes close to being ecofriendly is the ISSA made by Foreo. It is made of silicone, a material that is not toxic to aquatic or soil organisms and is petroleum free. Foreo claims the ISSA only needs to be charged twice a year, and the brush only needs replacement every 6 months.
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