The standard advice is to change your toothbrush every three months, so that means 4 toothbrushes per person per year going into landfill. Four doesn’t sound very much, but consider that the population of the British Isles is around 67.5 million, and even if only around two thirds of those people changed their brushes as regularly as advised, that’s still around 180 million toothbrushes going into landfill every year. That’s before we even look at the impact of plastic toothpaste tubes and dental floss (and consider what happens when marine animals eat floss that has got washed into the ocean).

So I decide to look at what alternatives were out there and see what small changes I could make (and hopefully encourage other people to consider doing the same). None of the companies I mention below have given me any payment in either money or products – I’m just talking about what I have found to have worked for me during the month that I was trying eco options.

Toothbrushes

I have a bit of a problem with toothbrushes: I press quite hard whilst cleaning my teeth. I consciously try not to do it, but I manage it with varying degrees of success and invariably end up with mangled bristles way before my other half has to change his toothbrush. I’ve tried various eco-toothbrushes and until recently, found them to be even worse than their completely plastic counterparts. And even though they are more eco-friendly than a completely plastic brush, the bristles were still completely nylon (I’m looking at you, Humble brush. I have no way to recycle Nylon-6…) Until that is, the Truth brush appeared.

The truth brush costs £4.50 and comes in 4 colours – cloud white, storm grey, petal pink, and moss green, and there is also a child sized brush. The truth brush is a lovely thing to hold (okay, I may be getting a little over-excited here, but it’s true!) The cylindrical handle is really comfortable and the rounded head means that it’s really comfortable in your mouth as well – no grazed gums here!

The truth brush is made in China – which as the makers point out is where bamboo grows naturally and they also carbon offset the shipping from China and the shipping to the customer. The truth brush comes with the message that ‘My journey to you has been carbon neutral’ and the packaging is fully recyclable, consisting of a piece of tissue wrapped around the brush and a cardboard outer tube. They also have a bamboo travel case available for £8 and you can also buy a case of 4 – a whole year’s supply – for £16

The bristles are made of 62% castor oil and 38% nylon – now, it’s not perfect, but given that the only alternatives are boar bristles or nylon 4 which may or may not biodegrade and isn’t commercially available anyway, it’s probably the best that you’re going to find at the moment.

And on the off-chance that you are worried about stealing bamboo from pandas – don’t be, because the brush is made of Mosa bamboo which pandas don’t eat!

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Toothpaste

So having found a toothbrush that was as near to eco-friendly as I was going to find, I started experimenting with natural toothpastes. I was looking for something that was made with natural ingredients and which came in a non-plastic recyclable container.

The first brand I tried was Natural Toothpaste from Georganics. I went for the English Peppermint 120ml jar which costs around £6.90. The toothpaste comes in a glass jar with a metal lid and also has a little wooden spatula so you can put a pea sized amount on your brush. It has a shelf life of 12 months – which is a good thing, considering that I’ve hardly made a dent in the jar yet!

The toothpaste is quite different to the paste you get in a ‘normal’ tube of toothpaste you’d buy from the supermarket. It looks a bit like putty and when you use it to brush your teeth, it doesn’t foam – which is a bit odd at first. The pepperminty smell and taste is really nice and there is the occasional hint of lemon. Even after rinsing well, the peppermint flavour remains. The main ingredient in the toothpaste is calcium carbonate – the same stuff that chalk and limestone are made of, but other mineral ingredients include china clay and diatomaceous earth. Diatomaceous earth is an interesting ingredient – it is 80-90% silica and its function here is to provide a mild abrasive action. Other uses include cat litter, potting soil, filtration and even flea powder!

The full list of ingredients are as follows : calcium carbonate ^ captylic/Capric Triglycergide* Kaolin^ Butyrospermum Parkii Butter*^ Cocos nucifera Oil ^* Diatomaceous earth^* Sodium bicarbonate^ Mentha Arvensis Herb Oil ^* Melaleuca Alternifolia Leaf Oil ^* Citrus Limon Peel Oil ^* Ocimum Basilicum Oil ^* Tocopherol ^ (^ food grade * organic)

All the packaging is recyclable, it’s suitable for vegans, it’s gluten free and is organic.

I also tried Bio-White tooth powder (which I picked up whilst in Southampton). This is another mineral powder, again in fully recyclable packaging and with calcium carbonate listed as the main ingredient. The big difference here is that it is a powder, rather than a paste. The instructions say to wet the head of your toothbrush, dip it in the powder and then shake off the excess. The instructions then say to brush your teeth using vertical movements – which provided me with a bit of consternation because I can’t brush the tops of my teeth with vertical movements…. Anyway, back to the powder itself. I went for the peppermint flavour, although lemon is available too. The makers claim that the lemon will stimulate the digestive system and the peppermint will help heal your gums because of the antimicrobial action of the herb. The makers also say that the chalk, salt and xylitol will clean, remineralise and whiten your teeth.

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The full list of ingredients are calcium carbonate, sea salt*, xylitol, thyme*, sage*, chamomile*, rosemary *, peppermint*, peppermint essential oil* (*organic). There are also refills for the jar available in a paper bag, which is even more environmentally friendly.

If you were to go for a walk on the South Downs after a rain shower in the middle of summer when the ground is backed hard and then sniff the air, you’d get some idea of what this powder smells like when you put the toothbrush bristles in it. It’s not unpleasant – and for me it reminds me of many happy summer days when I was a child – but it does take a bit of getting used to, because it smells like petrichor, and unlike the Georganics paste, it doesn’t have a very strong peppermint taste. I can’t say as I have noticed a whiter smile whilst using Bio-white, but I probably haven’t been using it long enough.

Dental Floss

Dental floss is usually made of plastic – and if it is biodegradable, it’s frequently made of silk which isn’t going to work if you are vegan. I’m not really a user of dental floss (despite my dentist’s exhortations to floss regularly: there’s a difference between knowing I should do something and actually doing it…) so I didn’t try any during my month of eco-friendly dental shenanigans. I did find Tevra dental floss, which is made with corn, comes in a recyclable glass bottle and has a ginger mint flavour, during my searches though, so I might give it a go soon!

Ta-da! The Results are in…

So what have I discovered after my month long experiment with dental products? I found the truth brush to be the most environmentally friendly brush on the market and the most user friendly, so I will definitely continue to use that. Of the two toothpaste alternatives that I used, I preferred the Georganics and will continue to use that. As it doesn’t have flouride in (and neither does my water), I am still going to use my normal toothpaste once a day because last time I used non-fluoridated toothpaste exclusively for any length of time, I ended up with three small fillings. I figure that I’ve still cut my plastic waste in half and will continue to search for something that does have fluoride in – so I’m calling the experiment a success and I’ve definitely reduced the amount of plastic waste going to landfill in a small way.