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TOOTHBRUSHES

Dentists are keen for us to replace our tooth brush every three months and if we do as we are told this represents 4 brushes a year. The population of the UK is currently thought to be 66.5 million which adds up to 264 million brushes every year. Maybe not every one does this, but even half of this figure still adds up to some 2 to 2.5 million kilograms of plastic.

‘Two shot injection moulding’ has allowed us to make multi coloured brushes with soft pads. This involves fusing two different plastics together which makes them currently unrecyclable. Maybe the time as come to abandon these brightly coloured  offerings and use ones made from biodegradable materials such as bamboo. We might even consider returning to the ancient babylonian practice which is widely used today in sub Saharan Africa, Islamic and Hindu cultures. This involves using a chewed stick from the Neem or Arak tree to clean our teeth. This can be easily shortened and reused for considerable periods and at the end of its life it is completely compostable.   

When discarded many brushes can reach the ocean where they float, gathered by tidal currents they can gather on the beaches  of remote spots such the Cocos Islands where Australian researchers have recently found some 373,000 on 26 kilometres of beach [thats an average of 14 every metre].