Easy eco-swaps - Toothpaste!
Hello there and welcome to a brand new series of articles all about easy product swaps you can make in your own homes to really make an impact on your carbon footprint, and reduce the amount of waste you generate - a very worthwhile and necessary thing to do, not only for our planet but also for your bins, with many local authorities dropping general waste collections down to every three weeks!
This week I wanted to chat about toothpaste. We all use it, it’s part of our daily routine, and that means it is a great opportunity to reduce a lot of waste from your home. Depending on the size and age of your family you could be squeezing your way through a number of tubes a month!
Each tube is usually made up of a layer of metal (often aluminium) bonded together with a layer of plastic. It’s this composite that makes them so difficult to recycle as the different parts have to be separated by very specific means that the majority of local authorities aren’t equipped to handle. There are what’s known as closed-loop recycling options for toothpaste tubes, but that opens us up to a whole additional question of how green are those recycling facilities and the energy they need to use to do what they do to our toothpaste tubes.
Thankfully there is a really straightforward and elegant solution to these bathroom sink woes... toothpaste that comes in glass jars! You still get the same quality of dental care, especially from a well-known company like Georganics (which is who I stock in my shop) and you avoid a lot of the additives that your regular multinational toothpaste corporation likes to put into theirs.
I’ve been using jars of Georganics toothpaste for a few years now, and my teeth haven’t minded at all, they are clean, don’t ache or feel sensitive and I feel fresh after brushing. This toothpaste is slightly thicker and has the tiniest bit of texture to it, so does take a little time to adjust to, but within a week you’ll be so used to it and will have forgotten what your old toothpaste was like!
You might be wondering how it works, how you get the paste from a glass jar to your brush without being able to squeeze it, and you’ve got a couple of options here. The first is to just go for it and dunk your bristles into the jar! This is perhaps the most tactile and satisfying option (to me at least!) but also gives you a challenge of getting the right amount of your brush... it is quite easy to get too much on there with this method. The other main alternative is to use a spatula-style implement. I sell Georganics ones that are a great size and shape for this task, but any old (clean) implement would also work, from a lolly stick to one of those PVA glue spatulas! Having an individual spatula also helps if you’re sharing with family members.
So once you’ve finished your glass jar of toothpaste the possibilities for reusing it are endless before you ever need to consider adding it to your recycling! The jars make ideal additions to your kitchen cupboard after a good rinse out and a trip to your local refill shop to fill it with some herbs and spices, which are more often than not way cheaper than the supermarket equivalents.
They can be used for storing craft projects, buttons, beads, seeds. You can have a go at making your own lotions and potions, the possibilities for a small glass jar are almost endless (ish!).
Why not give it a go and see how you get on. There isn’t a huge price different between a jar of eco-friendly toothpaste and a tube of toothpaste, and despite them being about the same quantity I’ve found the jars go further. The shop carries an ever-growing range of dentalcare products from toothpastes to mouthwash, wooden toothbrushes to floss.
Something that was much requested was toothpaste tablets, and these are a game changer. I recently tried them on a holiday and they are brilliant. Small crunchy tablets that you chew, and then start brushing! They have found a natural way to make them foam, so after the initial chewing you can’t really tell the difference between them and actual toothpaste. They are fantastic value for money too. A jar of 180 costs £8.90, but that will last one person 3 months brushing twice a day which comes out to just under £3 a month!
Related but not quite the same are the mouthwash tablets. These ones you don’t crunch but instead drop into a little bit of water and they fizz away like a berocca, then it’s ready to use just like a regular cap-full of mouthwash.
The great thing about of these two options is the saving on their carbon footprint. The weight of an item like a bottle of mouthwash means that it takes more energy to transport, and energy means fuel. When you remove the weight of the liquid and provide that yourself at home you’re eliminating a reasonable chunk of footprint.
You can shop in store if you’re close to Taunton, or online here, and there is free UK-wide shipping for all orders over £40.
(PS, if you haven’t switched over to a wooden toothbrush that is another really simple eco-swap that will save so much plastic from being made and disposed of. Around 4-5 billion plastic toothbrushes are made each year, and a large percentage of those WILL end up in our oceans)
Thanks so much for reading. I endeavour to put out a new blog post each week, alongside creating content about sustainable living for social media, which you can find linked below.
I’d love to hear your thoughts on eco dental care so please do drop a comment below. Have you tried any of the Georganics range yet? Or do you have another sustainable brand you think I should take a look at?
Take care and I’ll see you next week. Tim x