300 Million Toothpaste Tubes Go to Landfill

UPFRONT

300 million toothpaste tubes go to landfll

Enough plastic waste to circle the globe Pump-action toothpaste tubes can be easier popped in your mouth and crunched up, twice is the annual result of us cleaning our to recycle but you will still need to check with then you continue to brush your teeth as teeth with toothpaste from tubes that can’t your local council to see if they can be collected. usual be recycled. Not only are plastic toothpaste tubes bad • Solid toothpaste – You can buy solid A waste management company called for the environment, there’s a high chance you toothpaste either on a stick that you apply Business Waste is concerned about the might not be getting your money’s worth, with to your teeth, or as a bar, then you brush volume of plastic waste being thrown up to 10% of the toothpaste remaining when as usual. away due to toothpaste tubes and is calling you think the tube is empty. for plastic free alternatives to the typical Business Waste spokesperson Mark Hall More sustainable oral hygiene products toothpaste tube. said: ‘Manufacturers do this on purpose. It’s all such as bamboo toothbrushes, recyclable Te UK uses 300 million tubes of designed to make you buy a replacement tube heads for electric toothbrushes and dental toothpaste every year. Spread end-to-end sooner’. foss in non-plastic dispensers are also that’s about 75,000 kilometres of plastic, With people growing more concerned available. almost twice around the world. Toothpaste about their plastic footprint, many companies Toothpaste brand Colgate has launched tubes are usually made of diferent types of are inventing clever solutions to reduce the plastic-free initiatives, including a new plastics, and many brands contain a metal amount of plastic we throw away. vegan-friendly toothpaste that comes in layer inside the tube which isn’t easy to Business Waste has compiled a list of some recyclable packaging which is made from the separate for recycling purposes. of the best plastic-free toothpaste alternatives: same material as milk bottles. Colgate have On average, it takes 500 years for a • Glass jars of toothpaste – Many zero waste also become part of the Terracycle scheme, toothpaste tube to fully biodegrade in shops now stock variants on this, either in where you can take your empty toothpaste landfll, meaning that every tube you have a powder, or as regular toothpaste in glass tubes and plastic brushes to collection points used in your lifetime could still be out there jars. Te jars can then be reused or recycled for specialised recycling, and they can be in a big hole in the ground. • Toothpaste tablets – Tese can ofen just be turned into new items such as park benches. ²

390 BRITISH DENTAL JOURNAL | VOLUME 230 NO. 7 | April 9 2021