How to brush your teeth Zero Waste

Hi lovelies,

Happy Wednesday to you! It took a whole lot of searching but I’ve finally found a toothbrush I am happy with.

First things first, ordering the darn things. I searched high and low in the city of Ottawa for a bamboo toothbrush and came up with one from Terra20. Unfortunately the whole thing is basically packaged in plastic, much like a lot of their products. It was pretty disappointing.

Anyway, I then did extensive searches to try to find one that was affordable, wasn’t across the entire world (I paid for one then did an immediate return because it came from Australia), didn’t come wrapped in plastic when they shipped it and of course was biodegradable. Out of all of them Senzacare, for me, was my favourite option. The box is compostable and the clear part is actually made from wood pulp and when I inquired how long it would take to decompose, Senzacare told me 30-80 days. I cut the cello part up into tiny pieces and put it into my parents compost, so I will let you know if this works. The only thing to dispose of are the bristles themselves and I’m sure I will use them in a work of mixed media art. There are brushes that use boar bristles, which I’m not open to and another one that I contemplated for a while because the whole toothbrush is biodegradable and you’ll only ever need one from The Goodwell & Company. It is more expensive, but I may end up trying them still.

Anyway, I bought my bamboo toothbrushes through a supplier on Amazon.com called HomePulseBeauty. I ordered 12 and split the cost plus shipping with my friend who is also doing Zero Waste (except now when I look for it on their site, they don’t have the option to buy the 12 pack). They were amazing and made sure to send everything plastic free as requested. Here is what I wrote them:

 

Now toothpaste:

Before Zero Waste, I was using Tom’s of Maine. They actually take back all of their packaging if you ship it back to them, so that is amazing. Now I am using a basic 3 ingredient toothpaste. At first I was weary that my son wouldn’t like it, but then he kept seeing me use it and one day he just asked if he could too. I told him it’s a bit salty, but now he loves it and doesn’t like the Tom’s of Maine one! How exciting is that? We just dip our brushes into the jar and brush normally!

The only thing I haven’t figured out yet is dental floss. Honestly, I care about my teeth and while I did give away all of my floss I still have one box left. I will reuse the box, but the floss itself doesn’t decompose so I’ve been stuffing it into my jar of garbage. I also did buy a brass gum stimulator with a rubber tip, but it doesn’t do the same. I have yet to find a floss that doesn’t have any plastic packaging and where the floss itself can decompose.

Anyone have any leads? Please share!