Making oral hygiene more sustainable

"Oral hygiene: the practice of keeping the mouth clean and healthy by brushing and flossing to prevent tooth decay and gum disease.” (healthofchildren.com)

This isn’t only essential for our own personal health but also for our wellbeing as who doesn’t love that minty fresh feeling. However, for so long now the only solution for this basic need has been single use plastic toothbrushes, toothbrush heads, toothpaste and floss.

Plastic is indeed a practical solution for oral hygiene. It’s robust, waterproof, safe to humans (in part) and cheaply available. What has however been overlooked for too long is its impact on the planet – its reliance on fossil fuels to manufacture and the fact it is simply not designed to be disposed of sustainably. It cannot biodegrade and ultimately leaches chemicals into our soils and waters, and worse into the atmosphere if incinerated.

The good news is that raised awareness of our climate crisis and ingenious human endeavour, has resulted in many more sustainable solutions for maintaining excellent oral hygiene.

One of the smartest solutions has been to replace plastic with another super strong and robust material, that not only grows sustainably but is biodegradable - the super plant, bamboo. The majority of high street shops now sell bamboo toothbrushes and bamboo interdental brushes. And for electric toothbrush users, recyclable toothbrush heads and bamboo alternatives are now available. The fact is consumers now want solutions for recycling electric toothbrush heads, just as they have been for other household items for a long time now.

Another seismic change in the dental market has been the introduction of toothpaste tablets to replace toothpaste in tubes as we know it. These little tablets do everything that toothpaste does but use cleaner ingredients, pack a more minty punch and are zero waste coming in refillable glass jars. All you do is chew for 3-5 seconds and brush as normal.

Where can you find your eco-friendly oral hygiene essentials in one place?

Eco-Homemaker, an online shopping platform, is on a mission to make your life easier when it comes to eco-friendly shopping for your family. All of the above solutions are available on our website and are tried and tested by us.