Bamboo Toothbrush

 Bamboo toothbrush: ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Why is this swap necessary?

It was found in a study that 1 billion toothbrushes are thrown away each year in the US alone. Each toothbrush weighs about 20 grams of unrecyclable plastic, this is before you even start to consider packaging. Given you should replace your toothbrush about every 3 months, roughly 320 toothbrushes a lifetime, this is no surprise it starts to add up to a vast problem.

Additionally, studies have also started to come out about the health benefits of switching from plastic. It’s not a massive surprise given the amount of chemicals in the production of plastic, such as BPA. However, I cannot claim this is why I switched to bamboo toothbrushes, nor can I claim I know the ins and outs of the health benefits, but that additional reason is never a bad thing.

Bamboo provides a sustainable substitute. Bamboo grows very fast, one of the fastest growing plants on the planet, growing up to 3 foot in 24 hours! It is sturdy, light weight and has natural anti bacterial fibres, making it perfect for use in hygiene products. It takes around 4-6 months to biodegrade in a home compost, and only few weeks in an industrial one.

My Swap:

I have tried 4 different bamboo toothbrushes now. The right hand one is the newest, and slightly more expensive than the multipack Colgate ones. To be honest, I don't know which company the first I tried was from, as it came free with another of my environmentally friendly purchases. I paid £4 for the Humble brush, £6 for the 2 pack of Colgate. I wouldn't repurchase the two pack of Colgate but only because I didn't get along with the green one. I found the raised bristles made my gums bleed, but that is just a specific brush complaint, no different from plastic brush variations. To buy the Colgate brushes individually is £4.

It is quite hard to come up with a like for like price comparison, just looking at Colgate they produce so many different types of brush that it is hard to know which they are most similar to. One Colgate brush costs 99p, another costs £5.25, so I took an average over the first 10 plastic toothbrushes of theirs I saw (not including electric) which was £2.80. Presuming you use the toothbrush for three months, twice a day, the extra £1.20 only represents an extra 0.7p per use. An extra £1.20 every 3 months to save yet more plastic going into the seas or buried in dumps seems very much worth it.

My Findings:

There seems to be no real difference clean wise; my teeth feel no cleaner, but no less clean than when I used a plastic toothbrush. I found that after weeks of use the bees wax coating seems to fade. This hasn't made a difference, but as you can see from the picture, the left two brush handles have gone slightly white. Additionally, it is good to take caution in storage, you can see the slightly darkened tips where they have sat in a toothbrush holder. However, none of this has taken away from the clean, which after all, is what you're buying the brush for.

Conclusion:

In conclusion, I would recommend switching if you use manual toothbrushes. If, on the other hand, you are using an electric toothbrush, I’m not sure this alternative would uphold the same cleaning standard. This is the only reason I have downgraded to four stars, as although they match the cleaning standards of manual brushes, it is recognised that electric toothbrushes clean better. There are sustainable alternatives for electric toothbrush heads, for example, companies offering a closed recycling process. However, as I don't use an electric toothbrush, I am yet to try this. But for anyone using manual toothbrushes, I fully recommend the bamboo alternative.