January 29th's Tip
Toothbrushes: Replacing your toothbrush every 3 months (and, yes, it is every 3 months, if you follow dentist recommendations) and after every time you come down with a cold or the flu can add up to a lot of toothbrushes and a lot of waste. While it is necessary for the health of your teeth and gums to replace your toothbrush, you can reduce the waste by purchasing a toothbrush with a replaceable head.
A tiny step, but by only throwing away the toothbrush head every few months rather than the whole toothbrush, you will be producing much less waste.
Other Ideas
Preserve Products carries a toothbrush with a handle designed by dentists and made from polypropylene plastic that has been recycled from used Stonyfield Yogurt cups. When you are done with a Preserve toothbrush, you can recycle it with your normal #5 plastics, or send it back to Preserve in a postage-paid envelope supplied to you with your purchase, where it will likely be reborn again as raw material for a picnic table, deck, boardwalk or other durable long-lasting product.
Radius offers recyclable toothbrushes made from cellulose from sustainable forests. They also carry electric toothbrushes with replaceable heads and toothbrushes with handles made from recycled dollar bills and recycled wood, which also have replaceable heads.
Want some ideas for how to use old toothbrushes? Visit wikiHow.
Contribute
We are looking for reader submitted tips for Eco-Friendly Friday so we can share some even we may have not heard before. If you've got a unique or informative tip and want to contribute to Eco-Friendly Friday, shoot us an email. Be sure to include your URL if you want a link to your site included with your tip!
January 30th, 2010 at 3:35 pm
Great point on replacing a toothbrush after cold or flu. I hadn't thought about doing that before but it certainly makes sense!
January 31st, 2010 at 9:14 am
hey, me either - I have never replaced my toothbrush when I get a cold or flu. Saying that I am normally quite healthy.
BTW - love the layout etc of your site
February 1st, 2010 at 7:36 am
Haha! I feel so ashamed of myself... i replace my toothbrush every 6 months! can u imagine?? so, now, i have to say buh-bye for my old toothbrush.. This post is very useful to me! Thanks! More power!!
February 3rd, 2010 at 10:29 am
Thanks for sharing these tips - they can help me to make my everyday life really eco-friendly!
February 10th, 2010 at 4:11 pm
Great set of tips! I really love some of the eco-friendly ideas you have here. I'll certainly be using many of these myself. Thank you!