Small Habits, Big Impact: How Daily Oral Care Can Help the Planet

Summary: It is easy to convince yourself that your limited efforts towards sustainability do not amount to much. But lots of little efforts taken by millions of people can add up to a lot. One small effort you could make is developing a sustainable oral care routine.

Conversations about fighting climate change or reducing one's personal carbon footprint often lead to additional discussions about macro-level shifts. We start talking about things like installing solar panels and buying electric vehicles. Switching to a plant-based diet is on the table for the most die-hard sustainability proponents. But macro-level changes can also feel overwhelming and out of reach.

The other end of this perspective focuses on micro-level shifts, like switching to an eco-friendly oral care routine. While installing solar panels on your roof may seem too expensive and financially risky, replacing your toothbrush with a biodegradable alternative can seem like a change too insignificant to matter. Therein lies a trap.

What we now call climate change seems like a crisis too massive to effectively deal with. And so, we fall into the trap of thinking that our daily routines do not really matter. Yet achieving true sustainability is a lot like picking up pennies. One or two pennies don't amount to much. But pick up ten pennies every day for the rest of your life, and you will amass quite a bit of money. And if everybody in the world did the same thing, imagine how many pennies we would have.

Effective sustainability goals work on the same principle: everybody doing the little things gradually add up over time. Here at EcoFam, we believe sustainable oral care is worth pursuing. It is one of the little things each of us can do to add to the collective effort.

Your Bathroom's Hidden Carbon Footprint

Wrapping your brain around the effectiveness of eco-friendly oral care begins with a look at the hidden environmental costs of conventional oral care. The conventional oral care market is built on a consumption mindset. That mindset revolves around three critical ideas: take, make, and waste.

Consider the ubiquitous plastic toothbrush. Dental professionals recommend replacing your toothbrush every three months. That means four new plastic toothbrushes annually. For the average person, three hundred replacements over the course of a lifetime are normal. Now multiply that by the billions of people all around the world.

In the U.S. alone, we throw away an estimated 1 billion plastic toothbrushes every year. Laid end to end, they would wrap around the Earth four times. And because most are made from composite plastics and nylon, they are not recyclable. That means there is only one destination: the landfill.

It Doesn't Stop There

Plastic toothbrushes taking up valuable space in landfills is serious enough on their own. But the hidden carbon footprint of the typical American bathroom doesn't end there. It continues with:

• Toothpaste Tubes – Standard toothpaste tubes are manufactured using multiple layers of plastic and aluminum. There is no way to effectively recycle them because separating the materials is almost impossible. So we throw them away instead.
  
  

• Plastic Packaging – Traditional oral care products, like toothbrushes and mouthwash, are packaged in petroleum-based plastics. This translates to more plastic in our landfills. But it also means all the problems that come with extracting fossil fuels and turning them into plastic packaging.
  
  

• Wasted Water – People who leave the water running while they brush their teeth are wasting gallons every time they brush. At an estimated 4 gallons per session, a person could waste nearly 3,000 gallons every year just by brushing.
  
  

The hardest part of all of this is coming to grips with the fact that the hidden carbon footprint of our bathrooms is a matter of choice. We choose to practice oral hygiene in ways that are detrimental to the planet. We can just as easily choose a more sustainable oral care routine.

What Sustainable Oral Care Looks Like

Whether you prefer the term 'sustainable' or 'eco-friendly', creating an oral care routine that minimizes your environmental impact is not hard. In fact, creating a sustainable oral care routine is one of the easiest and most cost-effective ways to have an immediate impact on the planet. You do not have to sacrifice oral health. You don't have to spend a fortune either.

1. Swap Out the Toothbrush

Start by swapping out your plastic toothbrush for a biodegradable replacement. No need to do so immediately; you can wait until your current toothbrush reaches the end of its life. Just replace it with a biodegradable toothbrush made with materials like cornstarch or bamboo. When it finally wears out, you can either throw it in the trash or break off the bristles and add the handle to your compost heap.

2. Reach for the Tablets

For both your toothpaste and mouthwash, trade the pastes and ready-to-use liquids for tablets. Here at EcoFam, we got our start with toothpaste and mouthwash tablets. Both work just as well as their traditional counterparts but do not contribute to environmental harm caused by plastics. We package mouthwash and toothpaste tablets in reusable and fully recyclable containers.

3. Use Mouthwash Concentrate

If you try mouthwash tablets and still prefer a liquid product, make the switch to EcoFam mouthwash concentrate. It is a high-quality liquid product without a lot of water. You add the water at home. Mouthwash concentrate helps by reducing packaging requirements, facilitating more efficient shipping, and reducing shipping-related fuel consumption and pollution.

4. Switch Up Your Floss

Traditional dental floss is typically made from Teflon or nylon. Switching to a silk or bamboo product packaged in a reusable glass container instantly removes plastic from the waste stream.

Micro-Habits Drive Macro-Change

The real magic of developing a sustainable oral care routine is the effect it has on your mindset. Success in this one small area can facilitate what is known as the 'gateway effect'. Once you understand the benefits of eco-friendly oral care, you are more likely to adopt another micro-level change – and then another, and another, etc.

True sustainability is achieved through the combination of micro-level changes. If you are looking to adopt a more sustainable lifestyle, why not start in the bathroom? Developing a sustainable oral care routine could put you on the path to a fully sustainable lifestyle.

FAQs

Are biodegradable toothbrushes hygienic?

Absolutely. Natural materials, like bamboo, have antimicrobial and anti-fungal properties. They resist bacterial growth as well as plastic.

Do toothpaste tablets work as well as paste?

Again, yes. Provided you use toothpaste tablets according to the manufacturer's instructions, they work every bit as effectively as traditional toothpaste.

Do your toothpaste tablets contain fluoride?

No, they do not. We made the conscious choice to forgo fluoride in favor of nano-hydroxyapatite. It is a non-toxic and bio-compatible alternative that helps protect and re-mineralize teeth.

How does mouthwash concentrate reduce carbon footprint?

Traditional liquid mouthwash is 80-90% water. By removing most of the water, we can ship more product in fewer containers. That means our shipping needs do not consume as much fuel or contribute to pollution as much as traditional products.

What is the gateway effect observed in sustainability?

The gateway effect can be explained simply as one successful effort leading to another. Something like developing an eco-friendly oral care routine acts as a gateway to other sustainable practices.