Can You Recycle Your Toothbrush?
Posted by Laird on Nov 3, 2008
Can You Recycle Your Toothbrush?
A Toothbrush has its own lifespan and we usually change one after just a couple of months, at the most. But what happens to the toothbrushes we keep on discarding? And if we strictly follow our dentist’s advice, we would have been tossing toothbrushes every quarter! In America alone, each year, around fifty million pounds of used toothbrushes end up in landfills!
But the good news is that, the Green stores and some with online availability option have come up with the eco-friendly versions of toothbrushes. Eco-Dent has come of with their Terradent variety of toothbrushes with replaceable heads. The beauty of this product is that, the head with frayed bristles could be changed for a fresh head, thus retaining the handle part, leading to bare minimum waste. Again, planned by the dentists, the Recycline Preserve one’s handle portion is manufactured from Polypropylene Plastic recycled from the second-hand cups of Stonyfield Yogurt! And after such a toothbrush completes its life, one has the option of either putting it back to Recycline or put it with other ecologically reprocess-able plastic items, into the blue bin. The polypropylene plastic toothbrush, so finds its application in the manufacture of long lasting durables as outdoor tables and deck. If you are not that keen on mailing back your discarded toothbrush, Carol Duvall, the Craft guru from HGTV has an idea! And the idea is that of curving bracelet for the young ones, rather than leading the old toothbrushes to landfills. Following Carol’s idea, you may try this idea as well. The steps involved sounds simple. Just one minute boiling (and removing the bristles) the toothbrush could be enfolded around a mini jar and let it cool down to the desired shape. Meanwhile, nature’s own product cellulose is also getting used in the making of recyclable as well as chic toothbrushes from the Radius stable. Radius has also come up with battery driven “Intelligent Toothbrush”, to reduce environmental hazards by using replaceable heads. They are even open to taking back the toothbrush after eighteen months, once is the battery goes off completely. But definitely, many of us don’t just want to shift from our regular mass-market toothbrushes. We all have our choices and preferences. So, here lays the solution to follow our heart while caring for the environment and recycling. Toothbrush Express, the online website designed towards retailing, has an approach much alike the Recycline, towards toothbrush recycle. You can get new toothbrushes delivered at desired intervals (may be monthly to even half yearly). And after use, you can post back your old toothbrush for recycling, through a pre-paid mailer. But off course, Toothbrush Express charges for this additional service.
