Zero waste dental care
Finding a waste-free dental routine has taken me a lot longer than I thought, mostly as I’m a little picky with my toothpaste. Are you too?
I tried a DIY tooth powder recipe and while it was easy to make, waste-free and was passable in terms of flavour, it wasn’t my favourite swap. And that’s the thing with making swaps - they need to be sustainable FOR YOU so that you want to stick with them. There’s no point forcing yourself into something zero waste when it’s just not working for you.
So I went back to buying toothpaste tubes, from local and organic brands (super minty!) and recycling the tubes through TerraCycle - a great option for the hard-to-recycle things.
READ MORE: Interview with TerraCycle Australia & New Zealand.
Then when it came to floss, I realised not all the ‘eco’ options are created equal, with many brands blending polyester to make the floss stronger, but meaning it’s not compostable or biodegradable.
If you want to up your waste-free game, here are some tried and tested tips to help you reduce the waste in your dental care routine - including brands to try and what to do with the plastic dental waste you have left.
Love Beauty Foods Tooth Powder and Tooth Paste in glass jars. Both are super minty and the powder is refillable at Biome Eco Stores too!
The Toothbrush: switch to compostable
This one is a no-brainer and an easy first step I took towards zero waste toothbrushing. There are many brands on the market making sturdy bamboo toothbrushes, though they all use nylon bristles which need to be removed before composting - or using as cute little seedling markers. Just look out for a brand local to you and support a small business!
There are also options for cornstarch toothbrushes, which also compost.
Compostable toothbrushes I dig:
Biome - a nice, big, easy-grip handle and very sturdy toothbrush. They also have a charcoal bristle toothbrush.
‘Zerobrush’ from The Source Bulk Foods. They also do bamboo toothbrush travel cases (though I usually just travel with the box!) and kids’ toothbrushes with rounded handles and coloured ends. Cute!
The Humble Co. cornstarch toothbrush - as close to the plastic ones as you can get, but backyard compostable hooray!
The Humble Co. compostable cornstarch toothbrush.
Tooth powder, toothpaste, tooth tabs… oh my!
I have finally found a zero waste toothpaste that I am so keen to keep using: Love Beauty Foods’ Organic Mint Toothpaste. It’s 100% natural , organic and they’re an Australian small business. It is nice and minty, lathers well (it’s no sudsy Colgate, but hey let’s not even go in to all the extra weird ingredients in conventional toothpaste!) and it comes in a reusable glass jar with metal screw-top lid.
To use I just scoop a portion out with a little spoon and add to my toothbrush. Love Beauty Foods also do tooth powders in different flavours like mint & neem and aloe vera & organic lemon myrtle AND you can refill them from large jars if you happen to live near a Biome Eco Store in Brisbane (like me!).
Another zero waste option I’ve found that’s particularly handy for travel is tooth tablets in a similar glass jar. I’ve tried Crush & Brush charcoal mint tabs and I even took them camping - so handy with no scoop needed, just pop into your mouth, crush it up and brush! They don’t lather much but nice and minty and good for those in-between brush times too.
You can of course try DIY recipes for both paste and powder, like this simple whitening tooth powder recipe from Biome using ingredients like bentonite clay, activated charcoal and peppermint oil. DIYs are a great, cheap option and they may work well for you! I liked adding the natural sweetener xylitol (available in bulk), which I will likely still do again to use it up.
It’s really easy to DIY tooth powder from bulk ingredients.
compostable floss and refillable jars
There are a few zero waste floss options now, but look out for those that are still using polyester fibre as a blend, as this means they can’t be composted in your backyard.
Once you invest in a glass floss jar you can just buy the refills which come packaged in compostable cardboard.
So far I have used The ECO Floss, which is made from plant-based fibre and will break down in a hot, well-maintained backyard compost.
Next I’d like to try Brush It On's dental floss refills.
The ECO Floss refillable jar with compostable floss.
Recycle your dental waste with terracycle
If you still rely on some packaging for your dental care routine, or are using things up - don’t despair! This is where the heroes at TerraCycle come in - they have recycling systems for many streams of traditionally hard-to-recycle items like toothpaste tubes and floss containers (nope, they don’t get recycled in your curb-side council collection), beauty product empties, contact lens packaging, bread tags and more.
If you haven’t checked them out yet, have a look and see what waste you may have at home that you could divert using one of their free programs, and stay tuned for my interview with them on what’s next!
There are drop-off locations around Australia and the world (or you could become a collection point) - such an amazing recycling solution for us as we slowly transition to a circular product world.