Summary: The plastic toothbrush has been an oral care mainstay in the U.S. for generations. Consumers appreciate plastic toothbrushes because they are cheap. But the genuine cost of a plastic toothbrush isn't illustrated in its retail price. The cost is much higher.
Plastic toothbrushes are pretty cheap at retail. The cheapest can be had for under $5. But what you pay at retail is only part of the equation. The actual cost of a plastic toothbrush, from an environmental standpoint, is significantly higher than what you pay out of your pocket. That is why EcoFam customers prefer compostable toothbrushes.
A compostable toothbrush handle is made with materials that easily break down to become part of the soil. Conversely, plastic toothbrushes remain intact for decades. But even plastic's inability to easily break down doesn't tell the entire story. So what is the true environmental cost of a plastic toothbrush? Let us just say it is pretty steep.
Extracting the Raw Materials
Every plastic toothbrush has a petrochemical foundation. That being the case, the life of a plastic toothbrush begins underground. It begins with the crude oil and natural gas that act as primary feedstocks for manufacturing plastic.
Where our compostable toothbrush features a handle made of cornstarch, a plastic toothbrush handle is usually made of polypropylene. The bristles are typically nylon-6. Both are plastic polymers made from substances like propylene and ethylene. Manufacturers get their raw materials through fracking and drilling.
Fracking and drilling extract fossil fuels from the earth. In North America, hydraulic fracking is pretty popular for extracting natural gas. Unfortunately, fracking releases a significant amount of methane.
Another issue is land displacement. Both oil rigs and pipelines lead to damaged habitats and biodiversity loss. Every new petrochemical installation has some sort of impact on the ecosystems it touches.
Manufacturing Raw Plastic
Natural gas and crude oil do not become plastics very easily. Rather, they need to be 'cracked' at massive industrial complexes. Cracking is the process of applying extreme heat to break the bonds between hydrocarbons.
A plastic toothbrush handle made from ethylene is only possible after a furnace reaching temperatures of 800°C or more cracks its molecular bonds. It takes an awful lot of energy to run a furnace that hot. And then there are the emissions to account for. A tremendous amount of CO2 is released during cracking.
Successful cracking allows manufacturers to form tiny plastic pellets from the resulting materials. These pellets are known as feedstocks. They are the building blocks of plastic manufacturing. They are fed into injection mold machines to create plastic toothbrush handles – and just about everything else made with plastic.
Manufacturing the Toothbrush Handles
Injection molding is the primary process through which plastic toothbrush handles are made. Once again, you are talking about an energy intense process combining high heat and pressure.
Plastic pellets are fed into a machine using a hopper. Once in the machine, they are melted extremely quickly before being forced into a mold under high pressure. Once the mold is full, the parts are ejected and allowed to cool. It is a pretty simple process.
Unfortunately, most modern plastic toothbrushes are manufactured with an over-molding process that adds the soft rubber grips to the handle. Combining plastic with rubber makes the resulting toothbrush handle impossible to recycle. Why? Because the two types of plastic material cannot be effectively separated.
Ironically, a plastic toothbrush handle made from a single type of plastic could theoretically be recycled. And recycling it would be easy. The problem is that municipal recycling programs aren't set up to receive that type of plastic. No one is recycling it, so it ends up in a landfill.
EcoFam compostable toothbrushes are 100% compostable. Because they are made from cornstarch, they don't sit endlessly in landfills, along with tons of other trash that doesn't break down easily. If you were to bury one of our toothbrushes in your backyard, trying to dig it up and find it six months down the road would be nearly impossible. Under ideal conditions, a cornstarch-based handle would break down in 45-90 days.
The Toothbrush's Limited Utility
It is impossible to discuss the total environmental impact of a plastic toothbrush without discussing what happens at home. The reality is that toothbrushes have limited utility. In other words, they aren't designed to be used forever.
The American Dental Association (ADA) recommends replacing your toothbrush every 3-4 months. Let us go with quarterly (every 3 months) and do some simple math. Quarterly replacement would mean each member of your household using four toothbrushes every year. Seven decades of brushing one's teeth would mean 280 toothbrushes purchased and disposed of.
Now imagine that all those toothbrushes are thrown in the trash. If they are compostable, no problem. But if they are plastic, that is 280 brushes buried under the soil at the local landfill. Now multiply that by the millions of people who use plastic toothbrushes.
The Afterlife Isn't Kind to Plastic
Discussing landfill conditions is important in the context of understanding the total cost of a plastic toothbrush. The landfill is where the true cost is transformed into a debt that can never be repaid. Every bit of plastic that goes into a landfill contributes to landfill stagnation. What does this mean?
Under ideal conditions, some types of plastic can begin to decompose in a few decades. A plastic in a landfill is protected against oxygen and UV rays. That means any decomposition is much slower. Some plastics can remain intact for hundreds of years in a protected landfill.
Of course, not all plastics make it to the landfill. Some end up in waterways where they become a danger to both humans and marine life. And even when plastics do begin to break down, they don't completely disappear. They become microplastics that can cause additional problems.
A Better Way to Brush Your Teeth
Despite the ubiquitous nature of plastic and modern culture, we believe there is a better way to brush your teeth: the compostable toothbrush. Combined with products like toothpaste and mouthwash tablets, a compostable toothbrush is a key component in sustainable oral care. We invite you to try it. Once you go compostable, you will not go back to plastic.
FAQs
How many plastic toothbrushes are thrown away every year?
An estimated 1 billion are disposed of just in the U.S. Globally, the number is closer to 4 billion.
Can I toss a plastic toothbrush into the recycling bin?
Plastic toothbrushes are considered composite products. They aren't easily recycled, which is why most municipal programs don't accept them.
How long does it take a plastic toothbrush to decompose?
Nobody knows for sure. Some estimates have suggested an astounding 400-500 years.
Are toothbrush bristles compostable?
Unfortunately, bristles made with nylon are not compostable. We suggest pulling them out with pliers before tossing the compostable handle into your home compost heap.
Do plastic toothbrushes contribute to microplastic pollution?
Yes. Because most plastics do not break down completely, their decomposition results in microplastics that more easily leach into soil and water. We do not yet understand the full impact of microplastics on either the environment or human health.
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