Top 4 Benefits of Switching to a Bamboo Toothbrush

Whether you're looking for a more sustainable, less wasteful, or healthier option for your daily dental treatment, a bamboo toothbrush has many benefits! Therefore, this article analyzes the four main reasons for switching to bamboo for brushing your teeth.

First, though, let's talk about the problem with traditional toothbrushes...

The problem with plastic toothbrushes

National Geographic estimates that in the U.S. alone, about 1 billion toothbrushes are thrown away every year. While toothbrushes were once made of all-natural materials, they started being made of plastic about a hundred years ago.

Now a billion sounds like a lot, but imagine this: If you put all these toothbrushes end to end, they would circle the earth four times. But that's only for one year. Plastic takes up to 1,000 years to decompose, so every plastic toothbrush made since the early 20th century is still around today.

Bamboo toothbrush

If the thought (or visual) overwhelms you, you're not alone.

But thankfully, there is a better way. While we can't give up brushing our teeth, we can repurpose natural materials like bamboo instead of synthetics derived from fossil fuels to produce toothbrushes.

Benefits of Bamboo Toothbrush

1. Reduce waste

A circular economy and a low-waste lifestyle always start with the end in mind. Most products in today's linear economy are manufactured without consideration for their end-of-life. They have nowhere to be recycled, reused or composted, so are thrown away at the end of their useful life.

But by choosing natural materials for our products, such as bamboo for our toothbrushes, we can help create a system that reduces waste. Most bamboo toothbrushes are fully biodegradable, making it a logical choice for anyone looking to implement a low-waste home and personal care routine!

2. Sustainable Procurement

Bamboo is a rapidly regenerating and self-regenerating plant. In fact, bamboo can grow over three feet (or a meter) per day! This is 1,000 times the growth rate of oaks and other hardwood trees.

Due to its fast growth rate (one of the fastest in the world, in fact), bamboo can be harvested in 3-5 years, whereas trees can take 10-30 years or more to harvest.

Bamboo is also naturally insect resistant, meaning it does not require any pesticides to grow. Also, bamboo usually doesn't need any fertilizers or herbicides.

Well, bamboo is sustainably grown, but does that mean it's sustainable for us? This is a natural question and, of course, it must be considered in many ways. But the fascinating thing about bamboo is that it doesn't die when it's harvested -- the bamboo actually grows new shoots from its existing root system after harvest.

3. Regeneration

Not only does growing bamboo usually have very little negative impact on the environment, but it can actually have a positive impact! Bamboo can absorb atmospheric carbon very quickly into soil and biomass. This makes the plant an important part of our journey to reverse climate change.

4. Beautiful

Okay, so this benefit is more of an opinion, but aren't bamboo toothbrushes just more tasteful than cheap-looking plastic ones?

I just love the aesthetic of the bamboo toothbrush in my eco-friendly bathroom - it's simple and elegant. The natural look looks especially beautiful in a minimalist or neutral bathroom.

Where to Find Bamboo Toothbrushes: Meet the ubamboo brush

Now that we've broken down the many benefits of bamboo toothbrushes, where can you find bamboo toothbrushes?

Bamboo toothbrush and braces from ubamboobrush

Eco Serein offers a premium quality bamboo toothbrush that comes in a bamboo travel case (you can also choose to buy the toothbrush without a case if you don't want it). Their bamboo toothbrushes come in plastic-free packaging to ensure.

Most (96%) toothbrushes are made of all-natural materials with bristles made of nylon. To compost your toothbrush, you have two options. You can cut the toothbrush head off and put the handle in the compost bin, or use pliers to remove the bristles and compost the lintless brush!

The bamboo toothbrush is an easy switch to start or continue your low waste lifestyle journey. There's nothing new to learn, they don't take up any extra time, and they're fairly inexpensive. They were one of the first swaps I did and I haven't looked back since!

Check out ubamboo's Bamboo Toothbrush + Bamboo Travel Case here.