Brushing our teeth is a very basic hygiene practice we do before beginning a new day and some also do it for the second time in a day before bed. Now, what if I tell you that brushing is an unhealthy practice? You are probably thinking that this does not make any sense. But hang on. The story of my blog has not even begun.
First, let us do some basic mathematics. The brush you & I are using weigh around 17 gram. That means, if we consider 1 billion people of India using toothbrush daily, the total weight becomes 17 million kilogram. Well now, this is a weight that will not fit inside your bedroom while the toothbrush you use will fit into your pocket if you are planning a backpacking.
So, coming back to where I was, “brushing your teeth is an unhealthy practice”. With this statement I am not really saying that it is an unhealthy habit for you, but it is for the Mother Nature. Yes, brushing your teeth might be unhealthy for this planet, because the toothbrush you are using has to be discarded over a period of time, and what we call something that is no more useful is “WASTE”. Within a short period of time, your toothbrush becomes waste and is on its way to a dustbin or somewhere you & I do not even remember throwing it.
So, what is the big deal with one tiny toothbrush? Remember that 17,000,00 kilogram? I guess, you can now say what the big deal is. This is the weight of plastic waste generated by the plastic toothbrushes you and I use every day. This the amount of toothbrushes that end end up in oceans and landfills every single year. This is not a specific number. This number just emerged out of my personal calculations based on some official data. The original number may be a little more or less. But I believe you have got my point and an idea of the situation that can be caused by a brush we buy every 3rd or 4th month.
The problem is not the weight of the waste alone, but also its composition which is plastic. The plastic toothbrushes we are using is made from a combination of plastic material derived from crude oil, rubber and a mixture of plastic. The issue is not limited only to disposal of the toothbrush but also the defect in its combination due to which harmful byproducts are left in the final product.
A plastic toothbrush takes hundreds of years to decompose. They remain in landfills or oceans for centuries and keep on releasing harmful gases throughout their stay causing damage to the environment. They are often mistaken as food by sea birds and aquatic lives. A lot of such plastic gets broken down into smaller pieces and they end up being ingested by marine life which causes death to fishes and aquatic animals. This puts people who consume fish in danger too. Ultimately, plastic contaminates both the ocean and our food system.
According to a study by WWF, people around the world are consuming a credit card’s worth of micro plastic every week. And no doubt our toothbrushes also play a role in it.
So, your question might be, if this is what the scenario is, why things haven’t changed? Well, for something to change it requires consumer attention. And that is why we want to bring your attention towards bamboo toothbrushes, the best alternative present at this point of time to replace plastic from a very essential habit of our daily life, “Brushing our teeth”.
Bamboo toothbrushes look very similar to what you and I are familiar with as a brush. It is an ordinary brush with extra ordinary benefits; both for your health and the environment. The handle of a bamboo tooth brush is biodegradable. And the interesting facts for choosing the bamboo as a material is bamboo plant grow up to 3-feet in one day which means it is a fast growing plant and a sustainable resource. Bamboo plant releases 30% more oxygen into the atmosphere and absorbs more carbon dioxide compared to other plants and it has antimicrobial properties, meaning that bacteria are less likely to grow on it. Which makes it healthy for you as well as Mother Nature.
It may seem a little difficult to get your hands on a bamboo toothbrush, but no worry, PampEarth has made it easier with just one click away, deliverable to your door steps. Our bamboo toothbrush has a compostable handle and nylon-6 bristles. With no added colour just the soft brown bamboo.
The bristle of a bamboo toothbrush however not being compostable has a truth, finding a compostable bristle wasn’t tough but finding a compostable bristle that can be approved by dentist is still in search.
So, “Do Not Brush Your Teeth with a plastic toothbrush”. Instead move for a better alternative such as bamboo toothbrush which is, I repeat, healthy for both you and Mother Nature.
And in case you have made this switch much earlier. Bravo! You are a Hero for your Mother Earth.
Note: I would encourage everyone reading this to make the switch to the bamboo toothbrush. We as human beings should be ashamed of ourselves for the issues like land pollution, water pollution, climate change. With every bamboo toothbrush we start to use instead of plastic toothbrush, we take one step towards the sustainable choice and are reducing 17,000,000 kilo gram of plastic that will remain for centuries on our beautiful planet.
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