For those of whom don’t know, I actively try to reduce my plastic usage. I won’t claim to be the best at it, sometimes I opt for a plastic bag and I still use plastic to vac seal my fruits and meat from Costco, but where I can I try to reduce it. I sewed my own grocery bags out of old t-shirts, I use re-usable microfibre cloths instead of paper towel, etc, etc .. and now I use bamboo toothbrushes.
Quick recap of why bamboo is a better material to use over plastic : it grows incredibly quickly, it’s very easy to press and cut, it’s 100% biodegradable and it is inherently very clean. If you want to read up on the benefits of bamboo, please read this article by Bare Vida that goes through it’s advantages at length.
Now I’ve been using my bamboo toothbrush for just over two months now (I felt it was only fair to give it a good long trial before talking about it) and I have some compliments for my toothbrush. Firstly, it has not bent all out of shape from my aggressive toothbrushing routine. I have found with a lot of plastic toothbrushes that they would become disformed very quickly, requiring me to purchase them more often. Secondly, it was inexpensive. I got five toothbrushes for 11.00$. Whereas buying my usual plastic ones, they came to about 14.00$ for two. Yay savings! I have also found that I would often cut my gums on the plastic toothbrushes (no I don’t have gingivitis, I just brush hard) but with the bamboo, it is pliable enough and gentle enough to clean without causing me pain. I also found that when I use my charcoal, the brush looks much cleaner than my plastic one did. After brushing with charcoal, I brush with regular toothpaste, and I would often have leftover charcoal in my plastic brush after completing the whole routine, whereas the bamboo looks clean and brand new, leading me to believe that it is either designed better, or simply doesn’t hold onto particulate like the plastic one did.
Let’s look at downsides to the bamboo. I found it very difficult to find a “hard bristle” bamboo toothbrush, so I wound up with medium. The bristles aren’t as aggressive as before, but I have adjusted and actually prefer the medium now. Let’s look at knowing who’s toothbrush is who’s.. with plastic they are coloured to easily identify, where with the bamboo they have a number carved into them. No it isn’t a deal breaker, but make sure to remember your number, else you wind up using your kids toothbrush!
All in all, I would 10/10 recommend switching over. Without even looking at the environmental side of things, the bamboo toothbrush is just simply a better quality product that comes at a better price!
If you’ve used these bamboo toothbrushes or have any information on other products you can replace in your home to reduce plastic waste, please let me know in the comments! I hope to be doing a post soon about how I made my grocery bags, I look forward to putting out there.
Eva Blakeman 