Bamboo Toothbrushes
In my quest to find a bamboo toothbrush that is 100% biodegradable to sell on my website I discovered this wasn’t going to be easy.
It seems that unless you are using animal hair (pig) for the toothbrush filaments then most are made from some form of plastic, nylon.
Pig hair is hollow which brings problems with harbouring bacteria. The hairs are quite pointy which can be hard on the gums and they get soggy when wet. Not sure they would be very popular!
Even if the filaments are biodegradable there are metal staples that are used to clamp the toothbrush filaments in place. These will need to be removed before the toothbrush can be recycled.
So for the time being I will continue to search for the perfect bamboo toothbrush (with a small head and soft filaments) and for now the toothbrushes on the website are the best I can source at present, so I recommend cutting off the toothbrush head when you are finished with the brush and recycle appropriately. At the end of the day they are still by far better for the environment!
Isobel
