Bamboo and recycled plastic toothbrushes

Firstly thank you for the love. After my last blogpost I was touched to receive so many messages and comments of love, encouragement and thanks for being honest. I'm glad I could help those who needed it, including myself. Now onward...

Lately I have been thrilled to see so many people on my various social media feeds that are promoting the use of either reusable plastics, non-plastic alternatives or articles relating to the environmental damage plastic causes or the shock articles (which seem to be working) with turtles eating plastic in our oceans etc. I'm thrilled because the awareness is out there. I'd like to say it's all down to me but I've a feeling that its a combination two things: 1. the Blue Planet effect and 2. people are finally starting to listen to those environmentalists who have been shouting this at us for years. Well 3 if you include my campaign ;-)


A recycled plastic toothbrush that’s also recyclable. (Picture from Bioseptyl website)

Suddenly I'm seeing crochet soap savers everywhere (now that must be copying me) and I have people telling me about plastic free cosmetics even though I mentioned them first. I'm pretty sure its a circular thing that someone mentioned it to me, I forgot, then found out about it another way, bought some stuff and wrote a blogpost and then someone tells me about it again and I take credit. As long as we all agree that I'm awesome we'll be fine. Ha ha ha. You know what, as long as the awareness is out there people can tell me about shampoo bars as much as they like.

I'm just happy there's already less plastic in the world. In fact there are some great things going on: nations are banning single-use plastic, beer companies are making edible six-pack rings, companies are giving away bamboo toothbrushes (although you have to pay shipping) to help get them on the map, and I hear more and more people talking about how to become plastic free.



Now I've talked about plastic-free toothbrushes before. I'll be honest I've had issues with the bamboo ones. The first ones I ordered I didn't do a lot of research on and just got some from Amazon but they were too soft and loads of bristles fell out (a refund was given). Our son still really likes them still so he's happy. Plus there's no markings so he writes his name on each new one! They look nice enough (lower one in picture above) but I wasn't happy. The irony was they also came wrapped in plastic packaging!

So the next ones I did more research for. I got two types: the first was for the grownups and the second was for the toddler (picture below). For us we bought some from Outdoor Freakz which is a German company. I got the adult brushes (which I can no longer find on their site!) and they were good. The bristles mostly stayed in (one or two loses) and they were harder so better for our adult preferences. They had cute little designs on the base of each brush so you knew who's brush was whose. They gave a good clean feeling after use and my husband is happy with them (we'll come to me later). For the toddler it was trickier as a lot of companies said from 3 years plus. I took a risk as Rose is 2 and a half and got them. I bought mine from Planet Bamboo which is another German company. I opted for the blue ones as Rose loves blue. She got on really well but couldn't chew the bristles as she used to otherwise they'd fall out. I guess that was why the age restriction. Other than that she loves them and they give a good clean.

Now for this next bit to make sense you need to know how much I hate the feeling of material on my teeth. I mean it makes my toes curl and I go all silly. Lots of "urgh" noises and "don't chew your t-shirt!" exclamations. I really, really hate it! So I was slightly shocked that this is what the bamboo toothbrushes reminded me of. I gave them a chance for a couple of months and found that if I wet the brush first it was better. But the head of the brush was just too much like material for my liking. I look happy, don’t I?

I searched for something else and found a perfect solution! In my local organic shop were plastic toothbrushes made from recycled plastic that you can then recycle once you're done. Fabulous! Even better I found one that has a removable head (like in electric toothbrushes) so you keep the handle, recycle the head and put on a new one. I love it. Check out the picture below. It has that hard and smooth plastic feeling without the environmental consequences. Plus they come in different colours and are made in France. It means less air miles too which is always good. Whilst talking to my eldest (who'd asked to switch back to plastic) it emerged she didn't like the bamboo brushes for the same reason as me! So we got one in each colour and a little solid one for the little one too. I'm quite looking forward to cutting off the head (that goes in the bin) and recycling the rest of it in the box in-store. These magical brushes are from Bioseptyl. Check it out and test your French! (These are their photos. Did you guess?)





So there we are. As with everything new it's been hit and miss. Interestingly the guys like the bamboo brushes, the gals prefer recycled plastic and the little one doesn't care as long as the bristles don't all fall off in her mouth! We have happy people, a cleaner environment and big white smiles. Now for better toothpaste. Oh yes, this ditching plastic malarkey leads to all sorts of new things.

Toodle-oo.

Josie. Xxx

Our happy family of toothbrushes