DAY 20 Zero Waste Challenge: Bamboo Toothbrush
If on our blog post from yesterday we learned about homemade toothpaste and how we can make it ourselves. It only seemed right to have today's blog post about sustainable toothbrushes. As we know plastic toothbrushes are mainly made from a mix of plastic materials such as polyethylene for the handle and nylon for bristles, combining elements of rubber, crude oil as well as some extra plastic and cardboard that goes into their packaging.
Swapping to bamboo toothbrush from your plastic one won't make much of a difference for you, but be sure that it will make a whole lot for the environment. Since the plastic toothbrush is used by an overwhelming number of people worldwide in spite of its impact on the environment, we thought that we could help you understand more about the plastic toothbrush issue. For that we complied together a list of facts and statistics, hoping to give you an insight on the negative impact it has on the environment.
- In the United States alone it is estimated that over 850 million toothbrushes are discarded and end up in landfill every single year.
- Each of us will replace 300 toothbrushes during our lifetime (4 toothbrushes per year), that means we will throw away about 5.5 kg of plastic toothbrushes in our lifetime. As of 2018 there are 7.6 billion people in the world, that adds up to a staggering total of about 42 billion tons of plastic toothbrushes waste in our life span.
- In Australia, over 30 million toothbrushes are used and disposed, amounting to approximately 1000 tonnes of landfill yearly.- About 99% of the toothbrushes the world uses are made of plastic materials.
- Only a small part of the toothbrushes get to be recycled whyle most of them end up in a landfill or ocean, even though you throw them in the trash accordingly.
I believe that the facts speak by themselves and hope that you will decide to not be a part of those statistics anymore and make the switch to sustainable toothbrushes.
If you aren't sure what or how to recycle your old toothbrush be it made from plastic or sustainable materials, here you have a few options to extend the lifestyle of your three month old toothbrush that you might not have considered before.
These include:
- Cleaning jewelry,
- Cleaning bathroom tiles and toilets,
- Cleaning shoes,
- Children’s painting,
- Cleaning computer keyboards.
We also found this interesting video on the life of a toothbrush, you can check it out here.
Challenge:
Today's challenge is simple. All you have to do is purchase a bamboo toothbrush and swap your old one. Attribute a new purpose for your old toothbrush from the list we posted up.Last but not least enjoy your new sustainable way of brushing your teeth knowing that by doing so you give a helping hand to the environment.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments
(
Atom
)
Post a Comment